News

First Mountain Partnership Products on sale

29.11.2016

The first products with the Mountain Partnership Products label are on sale in the brand shop at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Headquarters in Rome, Italy. Currently available are handmade silk and felt scarves from two different groups of Kyrgyz mountain women as well as handmade felt ornaments from mountain women in Mongolia, ideal for Christmas presents and decorations.

Designed to promote mountain products and empower small-holder mountain producers in developing countries, the Mountain Partnership Products Initiative, funded by the Italian Development Cooperation, responds to the rise in global demand for quality, high-value products from mountain areas to improve livelihoods and boost local economies. The Mountain Partnership Products label focuses on mountain goods that support local biodiversity and sustainable production methods that are linked to the cultural traditions of mountain communities. Each individual mountain food, beverage or handicraft item bears the label, telling its own unique story so that consumers can more readily see their mountain origin, quality and value.

”We are very happy to be able to support the producers by collaborating with a retail outlet like the FAO brand shop. We hope that the proceedings of the sales will show that this initiative has huge potential in reaching out to customers around the world,” said Giorgio Grussu, FAO project officer and coordinator of the initiative.

The first scarves are hand-made by women involved in the Agency of Development Initiatives (ADI), a network of community-based organizations in Naryn, Kyrgyz Republic. The ten women of the Bai El Self-help Group, a member of ADI, produce the scarves out of local sheep’s wool and handwoven silk. The wool and silk are fused using a traditional technique called ‘wet felting’ by which the fibres are merged by pressing the wet wool on the silk and shrinking it to the desired shape. These Kyrgyz artisan have roots in a nomadic mountain tribal culture that has a long tradition of felt making, and crafting these scarves helps keep their history and cultural heritage alive.

The second batch of scarves available are made by the “Topchu” Art Group, an association of seven women, living in a marginalized mountain area in Barksoon, Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyz Republic. Also made of wool and silk fused together using wet felting, these scarves are coloured using natural dyes made from mountain herbs and flowers, walnut, apricot and apple leaves, onion, pomegranate skin and spruce cones. Barksoon Village, where the sheep’s wool used in the scarves comes from, is located at 1 753 metres and lies along the Silk Road, an ancient network of trade routes that enabled cultural exchange between Asia and Europe for centuries.

The felt ornaments are handmade by women in rural herding communities in the Altai Mountains in Mongolia. They come in the shapes of snow leopards, mice, horses, fish, snakes, birds and balls. The lamb’s wool used to make the ornaments is sheered by hand and coloured with natural dyes. Felt making is important in Mongolia where nomadic tribes practice the ancient tradition of building unique felt dwellings, called Ger, which are still inhabited today. In the past, poverty often forced herders to hunt snow leopards to prevent attacks on their herds, but today, these families are protecting the cats. The Snow Leopard Trust is helping families earn a living through their traditional wool-working skills in exchange for protecting the snow leopards.

The FAO brand shop is offering the retail facilities, and purchases will directly benefit these small-scale producers from remote mountain communities.

Read more 

Watch the Mountain Partnership Products Initiative video 

Photo: FAO/Michelle Geringer