Colombian Craft Exporters Exhibit at Tendence Trade Fair in Frankfurt, Germany
Unlike the New York International Gift Fair, Tendence is a show for producers to link with and sell to wholesale buyers, which means it is attended largely by importers looking for new products and production sources (but not necessarily writing orders on the spot). This fits well with ATA’s mission of sustainability – linking artisans directly to importers and fostering a long-term relationship is the heart of our market link strategy.
80,000 buyers visited the show this year, from over 117 countries. According to Messe Frankfurt, the coordinators of the show, the most buyers came from Italy, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Austria, and France. This is actually a decrease in the number of visitors, however from post-show surveys, show management found that more of the buyers were pleased with the selection of exhibitors and products available.
The Exporters
Four unique Colombian exporters shared space in ATA’s booth:
Antakarana, owned by Ana Maria Estrada Botero, showed their collection of nature-inspired painted wood trays and bowls.
Artefama, a Colombian home and desk accessories company focused on designs using wood and cow hide.
Chiminigagua, directed by Silvia Otero Willis, had an extensive collection of handmade rugs in new designs and fibers.
Oxidos, an exporter new to working with ATA (but quite experienced in exporting and business), was the surprise hit with their line of painted metal home decor items.
A fifth exporter, Piel Acida, exhibited in their own booth for the first time and, from early reports, had an extremely successful show. Their continuing customers placed orders and they saw a number of new customers interested in their jewelry and decor lines. Piel Acida received assistance from Aid to Artisans Colombia in designing a booth display that they will continue to use going forward. Oxidos and Piel Acida plan to share a booth at Ambiente (the spring counterpart to Tendence) and are working on those plans with show management.
Highlights
Overall, the four exporters in the Aid to Artisans booth made over 100 market links, an increase of over 25% from the previous year. Final totals of contacts and sales are still being calculated, but both Oxidos and Piel Acida wrote multiple large orders.
Oxidos was, as said above, the surprise hit of the show, indicating that our concept of what the European buyer is looking for may need some revision. The painted metal product looked as if it was better suited to the American market with its country barnyard style. However the most popular collection in the booth was Oxidos’ line of metal clocks in the shape of cows, painted funky and unexpected colors like green with pink spots. Buyers in the UK and Spain snatched them up by the container, and the show management themselves acknowledged the new country, rustic, cow trend in their informal trend report (read more below).
Chiminigagua, the rug company, also made some very promising contacts. They came to the show looking for European distribution, and may have found it with an Italian based rug design, development, marketing, and distribution company with a strong footing in the European market. Much of this company’s current production is done in Asia, but are interested in partnering with Chiminigagua to expand into South America.
There was also a strong fair trade presence at Tendence, with several European fair trade organizations and buyers visiting the ATA booth for information.
Other ATA-Affiliated Exhibitors
Also exhibiting at the fair were several organizations and groups that were part of past ATA projects. Among them was the Vietnamese NGO Craft Link, who ATA recently partnered with in a product development project. While the new products were not quite ready for this market, their booth filled with continuing collections was so busy during the show, in fact, that there was time for only brief conversations during the fair.
The Macedonian Artisan Trade Association (MATA) was also exhibiting, for the first time as an independent organization, with SIPPO (the Swiss Import Promotion Programme, which helped faciliate the participation of a number of European handcraft producers and organizations). MATA was developed upon the closure of ATA’s office in Skopje, Macedonia at the end of our most recent project there. Former staff members Suada and Vesna staffed the booth, filled with new product developed with a grant from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They plan to exhibit this collection at the Af L’Artigano fair in Milan this December.
Trend Report from Messe Frankfurt
Based on what the show management observed at Tendence 2006, here is an excerpt of their trend report:
“This year’s autumn, winter and Christmas season will be dominated in both the home and the gift-article segments by Baroque opulence and a glamorous rock-star look with pitch black, red, claret and lilac combined with lots of silver, paste gems, crystal and ornaments. Also very much ‘in’ is black and white. Trendsetters are ready to celebrate a white Christmas while a new, sophisticated and emotional trend is already in sight for the next festive season. This is distinguished by light cream and natural shades, lots of textiles and selected home accessories, such as white porcelain and glass. A trend across all product groups is towards high-grade individual pieces.
Mountain lodge magic and alpenglow. Rustic benches and chests of drawers, textiles with stag-horn buttons and even life-size stag figures are characteristic of the alpine look. Traditional cosiness can also take a playful form: with pink or turquoise cow bells, not to mention cushions, shoes, rucksacks, plates and cups with cow and edelweiss images.”
What’s Next?
Each exhibitor will be busy with follow up and production over the next few months, but many are also busy preparing for local and regional fairs, as well as the next international tradeshow season. Each of the Colombian exporters plans to return to Frankfurt in February for Ambiente, and three additional exporters – PurArt, Tayte, and MadreTierra – are considering their participation.
