Mr Sayamone Phengdouang, who owns the Xayaboury Coco brand, was speaking on Friday while displaying his wares at the ongoing Lao Handicraft Festival. He said that if he had more money he would improve his products and expand his market to other provinces as well as overseas. “My family members use their free time after work to turn coconut shells in decorative items for home use, such as lamps and bowls. We also make other items including spoons, dippers, key chains, ladies’ handbags, and soup bowls. We make these products based on costumers’ orders”, he said. “But we’d like to sell more in Vientiane and further afield. We’d also like to improve the quality and design to attract more buyers but this will require more expenditure and we can’t afford that right now”, he added. Mr Sayamone and his wife are both government officials and run a coconut-meat grating service for villagers, so they have plenty of coconut shells at their house.
When he was travelling overseas, Mr Sayamone saw that coconut shells could be used in a variety of innovative ways and turned into many attractive products so he decided to start his own business, adapting his methods to create his unique brand of products. “We can make over 100 coconut shell lamps and handbags each month but as we don’t have a market for this amount we make just a few each day depending on the orders we get. We make and sell everything at our house and sometimes exhibit our products at handicraft festivals where we do a brisk trade”, he said. His business is still very small and he entered the trade only a few years ago but some guesthouses and hotels have bought his products to use as decorations and for practical use. He believes that his business will grow and he called for potential investors to go into business with him. The attractively designed coconut shell products range in prince from 10,000 kip to 150,000 kip.
Information source: Vientiane Times.
