Selling carving for a living

 By Gedion Timothy Lapan

THE initiative by the Laguna Hotel to provide vendors exposure and the opportunity to sell their products has been praised. 

Vendors Samuel Paul and YamenaKakeali who have been selling handcraft at the Tabari market in Port Moresby for more than 20 years told The National that the free space given at the hotel would boost their business.

Paul said it would allow them access to international customers.

He sells baskets of different sizes, including laundry baskets which cost between K500 and K600.

 “Tray baskets cost K150.

Paul hopes to see tourists from countries far from PNG who will want to buy the baskets as souvenirs.

“We really appreciate what Laguna is doing to help us market our product to people from other parts of the world,” Paul said.

Laguna Hotel sales manager Andre Junjunan said the hotel allocated an area to the craft vendors to sell last October.