Strengthening Haitian Artisans' Marketing and Export Capacity

Results achieved as of the end of the project (December 2013) include: (i) Among the four artisan communities and the five small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) project beneficiaries over 1400 individuals have benefited from the international buyer contacts established including significant business opportunities with leading department store retailers in the United Kingdom (Selfridges) and in Canada (Hudson’s Bay Company). Altogether these new contacts have generated over $70 000 in new export sales for project beneficiaries; (ii) The marketing and branding efforts of the project have also generated significant media content to raise the global profile and awareness of these producers and their products including two feature articles published by major newspapers in the United Kingdom and Canada; (iii) Another notable project outcome is the development of new products and international marketing tools (e.g. new logos videos export price lists web presence e-catalogues etc.); (iv) Within the four communities individual artisans are in most cases reporting income increases of over 26% since the project began; (v) Two of the five SMEs supported by the project are now independently taking actions and making investments to sustain and build upon the product marketing and sales development activities initially supported by the project. In one case the SME exhibited its products at a major Canadian trade show in August 2013 entirely on its own; (vi) Two chambers of commerce in Haiti have demonstrated an improved capacity to provide trade-training services and 13 of the SMEs that participated in those trainings have already used their training to help their enterprises develop and manage export markets.