2002-2003 Press Releases

American Support for Lao Silk (Sept. 9, 2003)

The rich tradition of Lao handicrafts continues today, with dedicated and enterprising Lao experts and business people preserving the proud heritage of silk production and weaving. Partnership with American non-governmental organizations and with the U.S. Agency for International Development is helping to turn traditional crafts into an important source of income for silk producers and weavers, and to build handicrafts into a viable export product for Lao entrepreneurs. Lao products are still difficult to find in the U.S., due to very high tariffs, but Lao silk weavers and craftspeople hope to get equal access to the U.S. market once Laos, like most of the rest of the countries in the world, has normal trade relations (NTR) status with the U.S. The stories and pictures below tell about the growth of sericulture in Laos as a result of the cooperation between Lao master craftsmen and their American friends and supporters.

Lao Economic Acceleration Program For The Silk Sector [LEAPSS]

Silk begins with silkworms, and with the mulberry plant that is their food. Since 1999, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has provided funding to help villagers in Xieng Khouang and Houaphan provinces learn how to raise silkworms and produce higher quality silk. These provinces have long produced some of the best silk in Laos, and this U.S.-supported project builds on the skills already present in these remote northern communities. The Consortium in the Lao PDR, a non-governmental organization made up of the American. NGOs World Learning and World Education, implements the project.

There are now 774 families in the two provinces involved in this project, representing 10 different ethnic groups in 41 villages. The project has planted 163 acres of mulberry trees, and has introduced improved varieties of mulberry which will provide growers with a larger harvest so they can increase silk production. The project provides training for participants, small loans to assist them invest in building houses to increase the number of silkworms they can raise, and assistance in improving the quality of the raw silk produced through new reeling techniques. Since 2000, the average participant in the project has increased his or her income by 64 percent.

Silk is also an important alternative crop for highland villagers that traditionally grow the opium poppy as their main cash crop. To help end opium cultivation, the U.S. has also provided additional funding for the silk sector targeted specifically to former opium-growing communities.

Nikone

Rassanikone Nanong started a training center in 1992 with six staff. She saw that Lao people were abandoning silk production and weaving becuase without training and assistance in adapting to economic changes, they were not able to make enough profit from their work. Her center started exporting to Japan and France in 1994, and she now employs 47 people directly in the Nikone Handicraft Center in Vientiane. Another 100 women weave at home to make products for her company.

Nikone works with experts from around the world to provide training for weavers and silk makers, constantly improving the quality of the products. The U.S. organization “Aid to Artisans” supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, is one of her partners in this effort. In 2002 and 2003, ATA experts participated in training for silk dying. Nikone’s products are all naturally dyed, using the plants and flowers of Laos – even mud from the rice fields – to produce beautiful, rich and environmentally-friendly colors. ATA held workshops on natural dyes to help silk makers ensure consistency in their colors, an important step to maintaining export-quality products. ATA helped crafts people to understand the different color palettes popular in different markets, so that they can design fabrics that will be attractive to potential buyers around the world. This year, ATA is assisting Nikone in developing a product line to show at major trade fairs in the U.S., in anticipation of the increased market access that will come with lower tariffs and normal trade relations.

Nikone was the oldest of 14 children in her family. She says that when she was a child her mother had made everything for the family herself. When she grew up, she found that nothing for sale in the market was as good as what her mother made. This inspired her to weave her own fabrics and to help other women to do the same. Nikone believes that Lao silk is "one of the best in the world. It is smooth and soft – when you know how to treat it."

Now, the women weaving for Nikone’s shop can earn $50 – 100 dollars each month (compared to about $30 per month for the average government office worker.) In many of these families, the wife, through her weaving, can earn more than her husband, and since she is able to work from home, she can still look after the children in addition to earning a good cash income. Many villagers also earn income from gathering plants and flowers for the natural dyes Nikone uses.

Carol Cassidy

Carol Cassidy, owner and managing director of Lao Textiles, is the most prominent American investor in the Lao PDR. A weaver herself since she was 17 years old, she came to Laos in 1989 as a textile expert, sponsored by the United Nations Development Program. She saw the promise in Lao textiles, with their intricate designs and vibrant colors. She also recognized that many of these sophisticated weaving techniques and petterning were at risk of extinction, as was silk farming and production. In 1990, she started Lao Textiles, the first commercial hand-weaving studio in Laos, to help preserve this unique heritage. By using traditional motifs and weaving techniques, Caorl has created original wall hangings, shawls and custom furnishing fabrics that have become world renowned. Her team of weavers use hybrid looms designed by Carol herself. Her pieces have been displayed in the U.S. in the Textile Museum in Washington D.C., the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.

Since 1990, Lao Textiles has grown from five to 50 employees. Weavers are paid the equivalent of college-educated Lao professionals and are offered a benefit plan of health care, paid maternity leave and a retirement plan. In the provinces of Xieng Khouang and Houaphan, over 400 families – many of them from minority groups – produce raw silk for Carol’s company. For many, living in desperately poor rural areas of northern Laos, this is their major source of cash income. As more villagers became interested in converting their income to silk production, Carol expanded the program to include high quality, plain weave fabric that she converts into scarves and shawls.

Carol is enthusiastic about the future of Lao textiles. "Not only will the passage of normal trade relations benefit the expansion of weaving studios in the urban areas of Laos, but it will also help village-based projects such as our silk farm and plain weave products in Northern Laos. Through the increase in silk production and village weaving, more families will be encouraged to convert from opium farming to mulberry plantations."

Through Carol’s nearly 15 years of work with Lao Textiles as an entrepreneur and proponent for Lao traditional weaving and silk production, she has put faith in the benefits that a small foreign owned business can bring to a poor developing country. The success of Lao Textiles is proof that investment and vision are the tools to help encourage grassroots development and economic advancement.