Completing the Handicrafts Value Chain and Connecting Artisans' Products to the Market Is a Priority

Deputy for Handicrafts and Traditional Arts at the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts, stressing the need to complete the handicrafts value chain, said: Supporting production alone is not enough to revitalize this sector. Strengthening marketing, branding, distribution, and export links is necessary to build lasting ties between artisans' products and the domestic and global economies.

According to the report of Aria Heritage reporter, Barzin Zarghami, the country's vice president of handicrafts and traditional arts, today on October 21, on the sidelines of the opening of the national Manween creative industries event in Isfahan, referring to the place of this city in the cultural and artistic identity of Iran, said: In addition to having a privileged historical and cultural identity, Isfahan represents a part of Iran's identity, and it is necessary to connect the products of artists of this city to the market more than in the past.

The vice president of handicrafts and traditional arts of the country stated that one of the important challenges of handicrafts is the existence of missing links between production and consumption, and continued: strengthening these links and establishing effective communication between producers and the market is one of the necessities of the prosperity of handicrafts, especially in cities like Isfahan, which have extensive artistic and production capacities.

Emphasizing that policy making in the field of handicrafts should not be solely focused on increasing production, Zarghami added: Producers and artists should be encouraged and supported to work more, and the obstacles facing their activities should be removed. However, production support will be economically effective when other links in the value chain are also strengthened.

He clarified: Helping to market products, facilitating artists' access to the market, supporting branding and providing the presence of handicraft products in the global economy are among the measures that should be followed along with supporting production.

Referring to the compilation of the document on the value chain of handicraft production, the vice president of handicrafts and traditional arts said: This document was prepared with the approach of completing the links of the value chain and making it operational is one of the measures that have been started in the current management period.

Zarghami added: In this framework, one of the approaches to be considered is that the support facilities are not only allocated to the production chain and economic actors in other parts of the chain can also benefit from these capacities.

He continued: For example, if an economic activist takes action to set up a market and create a platform for the supply and sale of handicraft products, the support of such plans should also be considered; Because the development of market and sales infrastructure can help to complete the value chain and strengthen the economy of artists.

The Deputy of Handicrafts and Traditional Arts also emphasized the necessity of synergy between the institutions and groups effective in the value chain of handicrafts and said: the capacity and power of the institutions that can play a role in the implementation of this value chain should be identified and aggregated in order to provide the possibility of more effective implementation of support policies.

In another part of his speech, Zarghami pointed out the importance of reforming and clarifying the laws and regulations related to this field and added: Some of the existing regulations have been compiled in a general way, and some laws that have been approved with other goals affect the handicrafts activity; Therefore, the effects of these regulations on the activities of artists and economic activists should be investigated.

He pointed out: In cases where it is possible to amend or clarify the regulations, this matter should be followed up and in the areas where handicrafts require special regulations, rules and regulations should be formulated according to the requirements of this sector.

Emphasizing the necessity of simultaneous attention to production, market, branding, export and regulation reform, the vice president of handicrafts and traditional arts called the completion of the value chain one of the important axes to strengthen the economy of handicrafts and increase the effectiveness of support for artists.