Over 4 decades of its development, the An Khe Bamboo Rattan Cooperative has gradually affirmed its position as one of the city’s leading handicraft exporters. It has also helped to create jobs for hundreds of local people.

Some employees at the Cooperative

The Cooperative was established in 1978 with a total of 31 members, and its initial capital was 600 million VND. To date, it has had 41 members and 150 workers in total.

Currently, the Cooperative offers 50 kinds of rattan and bamboo products. Included are chairs, tables, lotus-shaped lamps, decorative plates, vases, wine-gourd shaped pots, lanterns and flower baskets.  Many of these handicrafts are priced at between 15 and 20 million VND each.

In attempting to enhance its competitiveness in the current market mechanism, the Cooperative has paid special attention to applying advanced techniques into its production activities.

For example, the Cooperative has renewed its rattan splitting machines by joining extra axles to the machines in order to increase their splitting capacity.

Also focus has been on creating mini kilns to dry rattan, and renewing rattan splitting knives in order to save time and manpower.

In a bid to increase the quality of human resources, the Cooperative has worked closely with the municipal Department of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs, the Industrial Development Consulting and Industry Promotion Centre, and the Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Support Centre, to provide training courses on rattan and bamboo handicrafts for around 200 people in Hoa Nhon and Hoa Bac communes in Hoa Vang District. After finishing these training courses, over 80 trainees of them have worked at the Cooperative.

Last year, the Cooperative earned around 873,000 USD in revenue, 500,000 USD of which was from exports. Thanks to this, the incomes and the living conditions of their employees were increased significantly.

Mr Tran Ba Tuong, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Cooperative, remarked “In the coming time, my Cooperative will give top priority to enhancing the quality of our products, diversifying our production and trading activities, and strengthening the links with other businesses in order to ensure an effective development”.