Gianyar, Regency

Celuk’s Perak Workers Look Into the Market Crisis

When it comes to talking about silver handicrafts and accessories, Celuk Village is the right place to find the things we want. This small village of 866 families is well known for its silver products. More than half of the population works in the silver industry. The latest fact shows that 450 families are habitually involved in silver work . They also are retailers and the exporters of the products. Besides making silver products, they also make the products from gold.

Celuk Village, with a population of 3,315, is separated into three main dusun. First is Dusun Celuk itself with 545 families (1,780 people), next is Dusun Tangsub with 60 families or 264 people and the last is Dusun Cemenggaon which is populated with 352 family units or 1,271 people. Each of the dusun has its own characteristic silver products. Generally, the “brand image” of the product with its ethnic style that we usually find in the local market is from Dusun Celuk. The others two dusun(s) are becoming famous in producing the silver goods.
According to the head of Celuk Village, Drs. I Made Surantha, in the 1960s the main occupation of the villagers was farming. Working as the silver handicraft maker was extra work. In the 1970s, this business became familiar to a few of the villagers. After that, the business was developed further in the 1980s.
“There are a lot of requests for the handicrafts. These requests come in one after another and the result on its price and number of products has brought satisfaction.” he said. He added that being a silver handicraft producer is becoming their major occupation.
When the economic crisis occurred in 1998, Celuk, in contrary, got a huge advantage derived from the business because, at that time, the demand for their product was increasing for both retail and export. According to I Made Surantha, the former of the head of the Elementary School, every single guest who comes to Bali will have time to visit to Celuk to buy the silver handicrafts. This has made the Celuk silver goods expensive and put its society in the highest position as Bali’s, and possibly Indonesia’s, top income village.
He added that before the bomb tragedy (12 October 2002), workers had no difficulties in finding the basic material for the silver handicrafts. After the bomb blast in Kuta, the Celuk silver workers were “crying”. They were severely affected by the tragedy because their target market was dramatically reduced.
This condition was not in line with the condition that was felt by the silver handicraft exporters. The exporters had difficulties because of the request of the product and on the other hand the time and employees were limited. “We, as the exporter were not affected so strongly by the bomb tragedy. Although visitors were not coming, items were still being requested,’ said I Kadek Mustika, the owner of the UD. Romo exporting company.
He added that, after the tragedy, having a lot of orders made them busy because of the limitation of time and also that they could not fill up the orders. “I have rejected requests from several visitors who told us to make the items from 50-100 kg weight.” he explained. The same statement also came from Drs. I Wayan Wijaya, Art Shop Puspa Mega owner. He said that even though exporting is still going on, the item, which is sold in retail, in the art shop is drastically decreased
To overcome the problem facing the market, mainly the retail market, a large amount of strategies and efforts have been made in order to avoid an economic crisis. Mustika together with Wayan Wijaya are in agreement to open a new market area in Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia and other Asian countries to extend the silver handicraft market from America, Australia and Europe. While, according to Nyoman Rupadana, Ayui Gold and Silver Smith Owner, to investigate the market situation we have to hold the expo abroad. This is done in order to make competition between Celuk silver products and the products from Thailand, Mexico and China. “It is just like playing football. We have to kick the ball, not just stand there waiting for the ball to come to us,” Rupadana said. Besides that to attract the visitor, we design our product uniquely and antiquely.

The rules of the cooperative
To design silver for sophisticated accessories, a good quality material is essential as it will determine the quality of the product. The basic materials are usually derived from the cooperative or ordered straight from Aneka Tambang Jakarta or retailers from Lombok, Java and Kalimantan. The difficulties faced by the workers are that prices of the basic materials are changing every time.
Before the bomb, Koperasi Pengrajin Perak Celuk (KPPC)- Celuk Silver Worker Cooperative- distributed almost 500 kg of pure silver per month to the workers. But then, the cooperative only gave 150-200 kg per month. That means that the basic material distribution has fallen by 65%. The manager of KPPC, I Made Ardita, SE in Celuk informed us of these problems recently. According to him, if the request is high, the distribution of the basic materials will be 10 kg of pure silver per month. If low, it will be 1-2 kg per month. The price of the basic material is according to the quality of the silver. According to Ardita, it is Rp 1.300.000,00 for the ‘butiran’ silver, for ‘batangan’ silver the cooperative sells it for Rp 1.200.000,00 and ‘parang’ silver is sold for Rp1.250.000,00. The kind of silver that is usually used by workers is ‘butiran’ silver because it is easy to design and does not need to be reheated. Ardita said that the presentation of the cooperative is helping a lot of its members. The price of the basic materials that are sold by the cooperative are`cheaper than others. This company also gives loans to their members. The most important thing about the cooperative existence is that the distribution of the basic materials from Aneka Tambang is easier.
(Poll)