Starting a business during a pandemic is not easy. However, armed with passion and belief, a woven craft business is able to exist and can even export to several countries. This recklessness was carried out by Elyza in 2020. This woman from Indramayu, West Java opened a shop on Jalan Uluwatu number 50, South Kuta, Badung Regency. The shop, named Rattan Twin Manggo, sells various types of local woven products from five craft centers, namely, Bali, Central Java, South Kalimantan, Ponorogo, and Yogyakarta. “The type of product is woven ate from the Karangasem area, Bali. Then there is also woven from pandanus, lontar, purun, jali-jali or plastic woven. There are salary bags from Jogja and others," said Elyza when met on Wednesday (5/10/2022) afternoon. When she opened the shop two years ago, Elyza was practically reckless. The situation in Bali at that time was very bad, no tourists came to this Island of the Gods. However, the determination and recklessness paid off. Along with the increasingly attractive tourism and the arrival of tourists, the shop is often visited by tourists.
The reason is, the products offered by Elyza are clearly displayed from the side of the road. "Because the place is also strategic, yes and there are no competitors, so many who come here are from local to foreign tourists," he explained. Even though the business he has started has only been around for two years, Elyza further said, most of his customers come from France, the US, Brazil and Japan. Even the products it sells have now been exported to Japan to Taiwan. “Last month, hundreds of pieces of products were exported. For this month, there are no wholesalers, only selling to the Seminyak area,” he explained. The product that is the best seller or the most loved by tourists, said Elyza, is a bag made of purun. Not infrequently, tourists do not just buy one product but up to five pieces or more. In the shop, you can see several handmade products ranging from various types of bags, baskets, hats, and women's pouches. The price offered varies depending on the shape and size of the product. The cheapest price is a multi-purpose product made from purun woven which is priced at IDR 10,000, while the most expensive product is a rattan bag from South Kalimantan for IDR 750,000. According to him, using local Indonesian handmade products can help craftsmen to earn. "I hope that this store can also help craftsmen and this is also a form of preserving Indonesian-made products so that they are better known in the future," said Elyza.
