Bilum market opens abroad

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Friday 02nd December 2011

By ELIAS LARI
PAPUA New Guinea women who are skilled in making bilum (string bags) now have the market to sell them overseas.
Paradise Bilum Designers PNG, a new company, has come to the aid of the women to help them earn a living from their product.
The company acts as a wholesaler – it buys the bilums from the women and sells them overseas.
The company will find the markets and then place orders for women to make the bilums.
The bilums will be based on orders from overseas.
Company manageress Rose Vaiang Naginel said it would  generate income for women especially those who had no jobs and stayed at home.
She said the company wanted to create job opportunities  for the women.
She said it would help the women utilise their skills to earn money for their families.
She said PNG women were very creative and could make various designs on the bilums.
Naginel said the company would soon be giving out orders to the women to start making the bilums instead of wasting their time sitting at the local market all day.
She said the country had a lot of people who were naturally talented to do anything but the problem was the market for their products.
“If you go into a local market, you will see that a big problem people face is the surplus in supply of goods,” Naginel said.
She said securing a market to sell products like garden food or bilums was very important because people needed to earn an income from what they produced.