Bac Ninh: Craft village cooperatives meet year-end orders

On this occasion, Ngoc Quyet Bamboo and Rattan Cooperative, Xuan Hoi village (Lac Ve commune) speeds up production to meet consumer demand in the last months of the year. After a year of sluggish market and declining orders, the fourth quarter is the time when the Cooperative expects to recover some of its revenue. The entire Cooperative has 9 members, most of whom face many difficulties. Hand-woven bamboo and rattan products depend heavily on labor, but due to unattractive income levels, craft village workers have switched to working in industrial parks with higher salaries. Not to mention, the products also face great competition from plastic products with diverse designs and high durability.

Director of Ngoc Quyet Bamboo and Rattan Cooperative (Lac Ve commune) checks a shipment of goods prepared for export to Taiwan (China).

Identifying those challenges, the cooperative has improved its designs to suit the tastes of each market. For example, for trays, rattan baskets, flower baskets, and export flower baskets, the cooperative uses a lot of mahogany brown for the Russian market and meticulous patterns for the Korean market; promoting products serving the domestic market such as chicken cages, wine baskets, gift baskets, etc. with modern designs. At the same time, information technology is applied to design drawings and send samples to customers for review before mass production. Currently, the cooperative is preparing an order of 10,000 flower baskets for export to Taiwan (China) and 1,000 chicken cages for domestic suppliers. To complete the order, the cooperative organizes 3-4 production teams inside and outside the province with about 400 workers, 4 times higher than normal days. “Having been in this profession for decades, I think every profession has its ups and downs, but we are all determined to keep it. Hopefully, with the increase in orders during Tet, we will maintain jobs and income for 3 production teams with hundreds of workers inside and outside the province,” said Mr. Dang Ngoc Quyet, Director of the Cooperative.

Also facing market difficulties when the number of orders decreased by 30%, Khuc Xuyen Fine Arts Woodwork Cooperative, Khuc Toai residential group, Kinh Bac ward is urgently completing projects and orders for Tet. Mr. Nguyen Van Vu, Director of the Cooperative, invested in many types of machinery to increase capacity and save labor costs. Mr. Vu said that if hiring a manual carver, it would take 3 days at a price of 700 - 800 thousand VND/day, while using a CNC carver, 6 pieces can be completed at the same time in 6 hours. In addition, Mr. Vu's family also installed a drying oven worth 500 million VND to handle the shrinkage problem of natural wood.

Another member of the Khuc Xuyen Fine Art Wood Cooperative, Mr. Nguyen Van Vi, currently has 3 carpentry workshops in the craft village and in Phu Khe ward, has recently linked up with a number of furniture manufacturers using other materials such as aluminum and glass to meet the diverse needs of customers. In general, thanks to the guaranteed quality, the Khuc Xuyen Fine Art Wood Cooperative has maintained the number of customers ordering houses, churches, doors, beds, cabinets, etc. The members of the Cooperative expect the unit's revenue in 2025 to reach about 10 billion VND. Thereby, leading the activities of the entire craft village with about 200 households producing and trading wooden furniture to grow together.

Thuong Huyen Rattan and Bamboo Cooperative, Phu Coc village, Hop Thinh commune is also racing against time to quickly complete orders with output increasing by about 70% since the beginning of October. There are days when the Cooperative exports about 6,000 products, mainly decorative lights.

It is known that the whole province currently has 276 industrial - handicraft cooperatives which are important nuclei in craft villages and traditional craft villages. In particular, cooperatives producing fine art wooden products, rattan and bamboo products with high handicraft elements have contributed to preserving the quintessence and identity of the locality, while creating many jobs for workers. However, through assessment, most cooperatives are facing difficulties in output markets, labor shortages and weak management. According to Mr. Pham Minh Hien, Chairman of the Provincial Cooperative Union, the unit is actively coordinating and organizing trade promotion programs, linking cooperatives and enterprises not only in the province but also expanding to other units nationwide, improving production capacity and consumption. Opening vocational training classes on rattan and bamboo products, fine art wood, civil carpentry, and training workers for small industrial cooperatives. Create conditions for cooperatives to access preferential loans to buy raw materials, invest in machinery to improve capacity and product quality. Thereby, accompanying cooperatives to overcome difficulties, achieve growth targets and continue to become a solid foundation for household economies in craft villages.

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