Indonesia Eximbank (LPEI), in collaboration with the East Java provincial government, has established three new Devisa Villages clusters in Bojonegoro and Gresik focusing on home decor, rattan products, and crackers. LPEI's program entails mentoring and training for 640 artisans from 22 villages in Bojonegoro and Gresik, encompassing three Devisa Village clusters. The Devisa Village program aims to enhance prosperity, broaden export market access, and ultimately increase the income of these rural communities. Ilham Mustafa, Head of LPEI's Consulting Services Division, highlights that over 70% of artisans involved are women. "This collaboration aims to enhance the competitiveness of local products to enter the global market, with social, environmental, and sustainable impacts," Mustafa stated. LPEI will continue providing technical support to artisans, including implementing export production standards, benchmarking successful factories in international markets, and encouraging partner cooperatives to participate in international exhibitions like Ambiente in Germany.
The Bojonegoro and Gresik clusters are notable examples. The Devisa Village cluster in Bojonegoro, located in the Kasiman sub-district, produces unique home decor crafted from corn husks by 65 artisans, mostly women. They are trained to transform corn husk waste into various craft products like lampshades, wall decor, and decorative mirrors, producing up to 5,000 home decor items per month priced between IDR 40,000 to IDR 200,000 each. CV Grandis Home, an LPEI partner, will market these crafts for export to the Netherlands and South Korea. Meanwhile, the Rattan Devisa Village in Gresik, centered in Domas Village, has been renowned for rattan craft production since 1994. About 350 artisans, with 70% being women, produce various rattan crafts tailored to modern and classic designs, marketed by the Giri Sejahtera Craft Producers Cooperative, an LPEI partner, for export to Japan. The third program focuses on the Fish Crackers Devisa Village managed by BUMDes Pahala in Sidayu, Gresik. Approximately 225 fish cracker artisans process fresh fish into crackers, aiming to penetrate export markets in Thailand, Malaysia, and the Netherlands with LPEI's guidance.
