Handicraft Industry in Bangladesh

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Handicraft Business
Handicrafts are unique expressions representing a particular culture or community through
artisans and materials. Handicrafts are part of a much larger home accessory market, which
includes handcrafted and machine made goods.
Handicrafts are mostly defined as items made by hand often with the use of simple tools and are
generally artistic and traditional in nature. Handicrafts are made from raw materials and can be
produced in unlimited numbers. Such products can be utilitarian, aesthetic, artistic, creative,
culturally attached, decorative, functional, traditional, religiously and socially symbolic and
significant.
The handicrafts sector assumes significance due to various reasons such as low capital
investment, high ration of value addition, robust potential for export and also foreign exchange
earnings.
Flashback of Bangladesh’s Handicraft industry
After 1970, Bangladesh’s handicraft product was introduced in the market. And in 80s the
product got market acceptance, and this became its growth period. In the 90s, the handicraft
products of Bangladesh experienced a slow growth, and it is the maturity period of the product.
After 2000, the sales of product decreased because of its old design and poor quality. Moreover,
new competitors came with newly-designed, innovative and quality product. As a result,
Bangladesh’s handicraft product faced a period of decline. Figure-01: Shows Bangladesh’s
handicraft product life cycle.
1970-1976 1977-1985 1985-2000 After 2000
Figure-01: Bangladesh’s Handicraft product life cycle.

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Nature of Handicraft Industry in Bangladesh
Bangladesh is one of the important suppliers of handicrafts to the world market. The Bangladeshi
handicrafts industry is highly labor intensive and is a cottage based industry. It is highly
decentralized, being spread all over the country in rural and urban areas. Artisans not only work
on full time but there are numerous artisans who are engaged in crafts work on part time basis.
The industry provides employment to over 3 million artisans who include a large number of
women and people belonging to the weaker sections of the society. Rooted deeply in the long
heritage of the land, it grew gradually over centuries representing the rich, unique traditions of
the soil, its people and their distinctive culture. The nourishing factors that helped the sector
flourish are love of the artisans for their craft, coupled with their untiring effort to survive against
odds. Of late, however facilitating services offered by the public and various private agencies to
organize and strengthen the sector have paved the way for better and efficient performance of the
sector. This has definitely resulted in an integrated and structured approach toward production
and marketing and today the handicraft industry of Bangladesh look much well organized then it
was a decade back. However, there is no denying the fact that despite considerable advancement,
potential of the sector still appear largely unexplored and a bulk of the resources untapped.
Innovative adaptation is yet to reach a satisfactory level. Beside the supply side constraints,
dearth of technology and inadequate export marketing drive continue to be the main
impediments for speedy growth of the industry.
Importance of Handicrafts Sector in Bangladesh
The importance of Handicraft sector in Bangladesh cannot be traced back to any particular point
of time. The handicrafts industry sector is highly dispersed and spread all over the country, in
rural areas as well as in urban areas. Being a home based industry, it requires minimum overhead
expenses and infrastructure to establish and operate. So, it can create jobs at low cost and high
employment potentials in relation to capital employed. For the same reason, it tends to have high
output to investment ratio. Handicrafts often being located in the rural areas as dominantly home
based pursuits involve large scale employment of women and thus help empowerment of weaker
sections of the society. As a labor intensive, cottage based and rural and small township centered
industry, handicraft industry becomes major source of income of both regular and off season
employment for all the rural communities. It will improve the standard of living of poor people
and broader economic growth through improvement of rich traditional skills and creative talents
of millions of artisans.

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Bangladeshi Handicrafts: Major Product Categories
1. Textile BasedHandicrafts: Popular textile handicrafts of BD include printed textiles
including block and screen printing, batik, bandhani (tie and die). These prints are used in
products ranging from bed covers to sheets, dress material to upholstery and tapestry. The
famous embroidered articles of silk and cotton, often embellished with mirrors, shells,
beads and metallic pieces are also found in BD. Embroidery is done too on leather, felt
and velvet etc.
2. Clay, metal and Jewelry: Brass, copper, bronze, bell metals are used for a variety of
wares and in a variety of finishes. Metal craft contains diverse range of objects such as
metal jewelry, metal utensils, silver ware, brassware, metal status. Scintillating ornaments
are available in a wide range of patterns, styles and compositions. Made from precious
metals, base metals, precious and semi precious stones; these ornaments have traditional
as well as modern styles. For example, Anklets, Armlets, Bangles, Bracelets, Brooches,
Chokers, Earrings, Necklaces, Pearls, Pendants, Rings, Toe Rings
3. Woodwork: Woodwork covers broad range of techniques such as woodcarving,
woodworking, wood burning etc. Woodcraft refers to the skills in carving or fashioning
objects from wood. Wooden articles in BD range from the ornately carved to the
absolutely simple. One can find toys, furniture, decorative articles etc bearing the art and
individually of the craftsman. For example, Almirah, Beds, Cabinets, Chairs, Home
Temples, Mirror Frames, Side boards, Sofa Sets
4. Stone Craft: It is an art or skill of manufacturing objects by combining together pieces of
rough natural stones. The intricately carved stoneware made of marble, alabaster or
soapstone etc inlaid with semiprecious stones carry on the heritage of Bangladeshi stone
crafts.
5. Glass and Ceramic: Glass and ceramic products are a fast upcoming segment in the
handicrafts from Bangladesh. Ceramics is an art of making different kind objects such as
earth ware, porcelain, tiles, cookware, dinnerware etc with the help of fired clay. Glass
crafts include assorted range of crafts such as glass blowing, glass bead making, hand
painted glass ware, glass pearls etc.
6. Home Furnishing: Bed Covers, Carpets, Coverlets, Curtains, Cushion Covers, Duvets
Kitchen Towels, Quilts, Rugs & Mats, Sofa Covers, Throws, Stools, Tables
7. Toys & Dolls: Clay Toys, Wooden Puppets, Wooden Toys
8. Table Accessories: Coasters, Napkin Rings, Napkins, Pen Holders, Table Lamps, Table
Mats, Table Runners, Table Skirtings, Tea Cozy.
9. Needle works: Chikan Embroidery, Crewel Embroidery, Crochet work, Kantha
Embroidery, Mirror work Embroidery.
10. Photography Business: It is said that pictures speak a thousand words. That is without a
shadow of doubt true. This is because of the fact that pictures do keep great memories

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that words cannot. The advent of the photography business dates back to centuries ago.
This is one arts trade that can be started with small capital. There are loads of
opportunities in this trade. Some of the areas that are mainly focused on the wedding
photography, Sports photography, child photography, nature photography, and all what
not.
11. Knitting: There are a whole lot that can be produced from the knitting business. They
include; cardigans, shawls, mufflers, table cloth and a lot more. In our country, women
are prefer knitting more in the rural areas.
12. Candle: Candles are in high demand by various people- from religious houses, to homes,
and even event decorators. Furthermore, scented candles are used in houses, hotels and
spas. Making candles of different shapes and designs is another handicraft business.
Famous Bangladeshi Handicraft
1. Nakshi Kantha: Nakshi kantha, a type of embroidered quilt, is a centuries-old Bengali
art tradition in Bangladesh. The basic material used is thread and old cloth. Kanthas are
made throughout Bangladesh, but the greater Mymensingh, Rajshahi, Faridpur and
Jessore areas are most famous for this craft. The colorful patterns and designs that are
embroidered resulted in the name "Nakshi Kantha", which was derived from the Bengali
word "naksha", which refers to artistic patterns. The early kanthas had a white
background accented with red, blue and black embroidery; later yellow, green, pink and
other colours were also included. The running stitch called "kantha stitch" is the main
stitch used for the purpose. Traditionally, kantha was produced for the use of the family.
Today, after the revival of the nakshi kantha, they are produced commercially.
2. Jamdani: Jamdani is one of the finest muslin textiles of Bengal, produced in Dhaka
District, Bangladesh for centuries. The historic production of jamdani was patronized by
imperial warrants of the Mughal emperors. The traditional art of weaving jamdani has
been declared by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Jamdani was
originally known as Dhakai named after the city of Dhaka, one of many ancient textile
weaving centers in Bengal region. Jamdani is a hand loom woven fabric made of cotton,
which historically was referred to as muslin. Jamdani weaving tradition is of Bengali
origin. It is one of the most time and labor-intensive forms of hand loom weaving. It is
undoubtedly one of the varieties of finest muslin. It has been spoken of as the most
artistic textile of the Bangladeshi weaver. Traditionally woven around Dhaka and created
on the loom brocade, jamdani is fabulously rich in motifs. The Jamdani weaving tradition
is of Bengali origin.

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3. Shital Pati: Shital pati is a kind of mat which feels cold by nature. It is made from murta
plants. It is usually used in Bangladesh and some parts of India. Mats with decorative
designs as called nakshi pati. Shitalpati is made from cane or from murta plants, known at
different places as mostak, patipata, patibet and paitara. The murta plant grows around
water bodies in Sylhet, Sunamganj, Barisal, Tangail, Comilla, Noakhali, Feni and
Chittagong. These days nakshi pati made of murta plants is available only in Sylhet and
Noakhali districts of Bangladesh.
Challenges and Opportunities of Handicraft Industry in Bangladesh
Handicrafts business is related to the accumulation of handmade product from over the country
and to sell them in retail or to export in other countries. People have a great passion for this type
of product because it contains flavor of culture and it has a variety of design. The challenges and
opportunities of the Handicraft Product can help us to determine the current situation of business,
challenges and gaps between demand and supply, source of raw materials and manpower,
potentiality of employment, and its prospect for future. Bangladesh is a developing and
overpopulated country; thus labor intensive technology can be more appreciable than capital
intensive technology for the industries. Application of a large amount of low compensated
workers to produce handicraft product will be beneficial for us from dual aspects. The first one is
reduction in un-employment thus poverty alleviation and the second one is the earning of
handsome amount of foreign currency. The paper is concerned with narration of the themes.
Opportunities of Handicrafts Industry in Bangladesh
Some issues are giving Handicraft business the stamina to compete with the artificial machine
made products and effort to take place in domestic and international market. These are explained
in below in details:
1. Demand for Handicrafts Products: This is one of the greatest opportunities for the
Handicraft products of our country to expand this sector. There is emerging demand for
handicrafts goods in developed countries such as USA, UK, Japan, India, Canada,
France, Germany, Italy etc.
2. Overseas Market and its opportunities: Organized effort in marketing Bangladeshi
handicrafts overseas is a matter of recent past-although some of the products were able to
find export destinations a little time back. As mentioned earlier, not many products
dominate in the export oriented handicraft sector. And all though at present Bangladeshi

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handicrafts are being exported to well over 50 countries of different continents, more than
70% of the total merchandise is lifted by the European, American, Indian and Japanese
market.
3. Preferential Tariffs and government support in cash: Generalized System of
Preferences (GSP) in European and American markets for Bangladeshi handicrafts is an
impetus for our exporters and it is making their products competitive. Although
implementation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements will gradually
phase out such preferential treatment, Bangladesh as a least developing country (LDC)
will continue to enjoy the benefits to tariff preference of sometime in future. Some
products of handicrafts are enjoying cash incentives on their export which is a great
stimulus of encouraging handicrafts export.
4. Availability of Work force: Abundance of easily available skilled and semi skilled
workforce associated with the handicraft industry is indeed a very encouraging factor.
Existing workforce in this sector is near about 4 million, most of whom have accepted the
craft work as a means of their livelihood. Organized effort towards skill development and
product promotion will no doubt enable this remarkable workforce in a much bigger way.
Along with workforce, comes the issue of low wage which reduces production cost
considerable rendering the products competitive.
5. Rising Demand of our Handicrafts Products in Other Industry: Rising demand and
usage of handicrafts products in fashion industry. Development of sectors like Retail &
Real Estate that offers great requirements of handicraft products.
6. Development of Domestic & International Tourism Sector: Demand for handicraft
products are increasing with the Development of domestic and international tourism
sector.
7. Extension of E-commerce: E-commerce and Internet are emerged as promissory
distribution channels to market and sell the craft products. These lead the increment of
the use of our handicraft products all over the world.
8. Diversified Design for Handicraft Items: People like diversified designs and handmade
items. So, our handicraft sector has the opportunity to produce new and different quality
products to meet the demand of people who like diversified design.
9. Availability of Required Raw Materials: We use many environment friendly raw
materials such as wood, bamboo, straw, bead, stone, sea shell, coconut shell, brass,

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copper, leather, jute, cane, grass, natural fibers, natural dyes etc to make handicraft
products. These are available all over our country in a large number at a cheaper rate.
Challenges of Handicrafts Industry in Bangladesh
The followings are the main challenges for the Handicraft business development and making
business more and more competitive –
1. Narrow Product Range: Narrow product range and lack of new and innovative designs
suitable for overseas markets; have been identified as main constraints for growth of
handicraft export from Bangladesh.
2. Inappropriate Infrastructure & Communication Facilities: Industry is lacking with
infrastructure and communication facilities. Both distribution and communication
channel are not up to the mark of our country. And so due to late delivery or timely reply
of messages of foreign countries, deals is cancelled. Most of the time they do not show
enough interest to buy Bangladeshi handicraft products for this reason and are seen to
switch in another country to meet their demand.
3. Incapability to Produce in Large Volume: Lack of capabilities in producing large
volume is another challenge for handicrafts business. Since banks are not interested to
give loan in handicrafts sector, so there is scarcity of capital. Ultimately due to lacking of
capital they can’t go to produce in large volume.
4. Updated Information: Since tastes, preferences of users are changing with time,
handicrafts businessmen need to cope up those. But lack of updated information on
changing tastes and preferences of overseas buyers often restricts market access of
potential products.
5. Dearth of technology: Non-introduction of effective technology is recognized as major
inadequacy for healthy growth of the sector because without having high tech technology
large volume of production is quite impossible. Dearth of technology continues to be the
main impediments for speedy growth of the industry.
6. Increased globalization: It is causing the products to be more commoditized , because of
which, artisans are facing stiff competition from other artisans from all over the world.

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7. Co-ordination between govt. Bodies & Private Players: There is lack of co-ordination
between government bodies and private players.
8. Labor force: There is lack of skilled artesian in this sector.
9. Inadequate export marketing drive : It continues to be the another impediments for
speedy growth of the industry
10. Confinement in Rural Areas: Industry is still confined to rural areas and small cities
which creates a great transport problem.
11. Involvement of Technical Person: Low or no involvement of Technical person such as
Textile Engineers, Fashion designers etc.
12. Competition with Modern Machine Made Products: Hand-crafted products have to
compete on price, design and adaptability with modern machine made products, which
make difficulties for our traditional products to be competitive in international market.
13. Production Artificial Automated Product in Developed Countries: Artificial
automated product produced by competing countries, as Chinese embroidery machine
products compete with our hand stitch.
14. Better Product Produced in Other Countries: Quality products produced by
competing countries like India, Pakistan, China, South Africa, etc.
15. Trade Terms: Competing countries are enjoying better Trade Terms sometimes.
16. Marketing & Communication Gap: Bangladesh handicrafts are always appreciated to
the Global Market. Due to having some limitations of marketing and communication gap,
Bangladeshi handicrafts are not still remarkable above the possibility to increase
domestic & global reach.
17. Financial Constraints: Unavailability of finance hinders the growth of handicraft in
Bangladesh. Because of low access to institutional financing, handicrafts rely on
inefficient financing services from informal sources.
18. Entrepreneurship Skills: Conservative attitude towards risk, lack of vision, ability to
make plan and implementing those hinder the growth of handicraft in Bangladesh.
19. Bureaucracy: Inadequate government supports are top ranking constraints for handicraft
sector. Unnecessary layers of Bureaucracy and red-taps reduce the competitiveness of
handicrafts and raising the cost of transactions and operations.
20. Commitment to Innovation and Customer Satisfaction: Failing to keep in pace with
international competition, firms of all size are challenged to improve and innovate their

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products processes constantly. But in Bangladesh handicrafts are still not relating the
importance of satisfying and retaining customers by offering novel and desired benefits.
21. Quality Assurance: Govt. has failed to frame a national quality policy, provide adequate
support systems and establish a national quality certification authority. As a consequence
handicrafts of Bangladesh have failed to ensure the quality of their products and service
both in local and international market.
22. Fierce Competition with the Cheaper Foreign Goods: Fierce competition with the
cheaper goods of China, Taiwan, Korea, India, and Thailand also pose threat to
handicrafts in Bangladesh.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we can say that in spite of having some challenges in handicrafts business, it is a
potential sector. The importance of Handicraft sector in Bangladesh cannot be traced back to any
particular point of time. Rooted deeply in the long heritage of the land, it grew gradually over
centuries representing the rich, unique traditions of the soil, its people and their distinctive
culture. The nourishing factors that helped the sector flourish are love of the artisans for their
craft, coupled with their untiring effort to survive against odds. Of late, however facilitating
services offered by the public and various private agencies to organize and strengthen the sector
have paved the way for better and efficient performance of the sector. This has definitely resulted
in an integrated and structured approach toward production and marketing and today the
handicraft industry of Bangladesh look much well organized then it was a decade back.

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References
1. http://www.smef.org.bd/v2/index.php?popup_anywhere_preview=true
2. http://www.textiletoday.com.bd/textile-handicrafts-and-its-prospect-in-
bangladesh/
3. http://handicraftsinbangladesh.blogspot.com
4. http://www.bizbangladesh.com/exporters-bangladesh/art-craft-
jewellery/446/
5. http://investment.twl.com.bd/handicrafts-industry-in-bangladesh/
6. http://www.slideshare.net/myzelbaltazar/handicraft-2
7. http://www.slideshare.net/amicablebuddy/handicraft-17448640
8. http://www.slideshare.net/myzelbaltazar/tools-and-equipment-in-handicrafts