Meeting with the Deputy Mayor of Urubamba

After setting up an 11am appointment with the deputy mayor to take him to the Mercado Artesanal, we showed to find him out of the office. Fortunately, he was next door in the Centro Cultural, and with enough pestering, he did eventually leave to come with us.

There were about 30 artisans there to meet him. Seeing 30 of the 65 booths open for business was a significant improvement over the 6 booths that were open when I visited the market for the first time on Tuesday.

The deputy's primary concern is that the artisans produce higher-quality, better-differentiated products. He promised to pay for design workshops. The artisans are divided as to whether they want workshops. Most of them would like better marketing and signage for the market.

Everyone is eager to pursue internet sales, but product quality and design has to improve before the deputy will set up a meeting with an exporter. But he backtracked quickly to say that a meeting with an exporter would just be for them to give us ideas.

In typical government fashion, the deputy insisted that the first thing to do was write contract between the town, the mercado and NeVo.