Romanian baskets for English picnics

The difficult procedure by which osier is prepared for processing is one reason why wickerwork is not a very popular activity. Osier is cultivated under special conditions and has to be protected from bad weather and insect invasions.

After the first snow has fallen, osier is picked and prepared for processing. It has to be decorticated, boiled and sunk in water to soften. The plant is then dried and sunbathed under special air and sun conditions. Afterwards, it is washed and lacquered.

Osier has low productivity over the first years of cultivation, but a hectare of well-tended osier may produce 14-15 tonnes of raw material after three years.

Two Romanians and a Romanian-born US citizen established Multitrade International in 1992, a company exporting osier-made products.

Marius atefan, one of the directors, used to work in furniture export before, but abandoned that field and headed toward osier.

According to him, the difference of market dynamics is quite large: “There are no big movements on the market of osier exporters. The business must be done step by step, as it is quite difficult to win the confidence of clients and most of them are old customers, with an inherited tradition.”

The two Romanians who manage the business in Romania travel abroad for contracts every year. atefan says that the best season to sign contracts is between December and February, when the portfolio of orders for next year is taking shape. Some 150 deliveries are made abroad every year.

Depending on the orders from abroad, Multitrade strikes contracts with the Romanian Forestry Departments and producers of osier objects. The Autonomous Forest Regie and its workshops deliver about 81% of the merchandise.

Multitrade registered 1.4 billion lei in turnover last year. “This figure stands for the revenues derived from commission only, and not from the goods’ value. Exporters do not calculate the value of the merchandise, as it belongs to the National Forest Regie,” Marius atefan explains.

Beside the export of objects made of osier, Multitrade also sells furniture, especially chairs whose seats are made of osier and chairs for children. According to Marius atefan, the kiddie seats are highly demanded in the Netherlands and England. The procedure of manufacturing wickerwork chairs is as complicate as the procedure of manufacturing the other osier objects.

“The seat of the chair is manufactured from bulrush and maize leaves, which are picked during the autumn harvest and woven in a thread especially used for this work,” atefan explains.

One linen basket is delivered at the price of DM 10.5 on the German market, but it is sold for DM 50-55 at the store. Multitrade director hopes that this year will be more prosperous, as the company plans to approach a new market, Denmark.

“It is a new market and is quite difficult to approach these clients. We have to prove we are reliable, first of all, and that we make quality products. On the other hand, the price should be competitive in order to secure us a niche on this market.”