Mercado Global

Mercado Global is a social enterprise with offices in Brooklyn, NY, and Panajachel. Working with 45 indigenous artisan communities in the rural highlands of Guatemala, they develop “thoughtfully designed fashion accessories in partnership with their artisans and world-renowned retailers” - combining Mayan craftsmanship with contemporary design. Under the leadership of Ruth Alvarez-DeGolia, Mercado Global’s Executive Director, the organization works with almost 1000 female artisans; empowering them to establish community businesses to sustain their heritage weaving techniques and support themselves and their families financially.

The Artisan Business Model

Mercado Global’s business model operates on the “3 pillars” of community-based education, asset development and market access. Their products encompass traditional weaving, hand embroidery/ embellishment and dyeing techniques. Using a combination of backstrap and treadle looms, textile production takes place in the community. Artisans based at the Panajachel workshop transform the textiles into contemporary products, which are subsequently exported for sale in the U.S. Through partnerships with major retail brands including Levi’s, Anthropology and Nordstrom, the artisans gain access to international markets; raising the profile and visibility of their work, and demonstrating the viability of socially responsible fair-trade sourcing and production for the mainstream retail market.

Working in partnership with local artisan co-operatives the organization delivers training programmes, led by indigenous women, that focus on financial literacy, business management, self-esteem and family health. This training, alongside the Asset Development Programme encourages saving and incentivises the purchase of sewing machines and looms, so that the women can run their own businesses and work both with and independently of Mercado Global. Director of Operations in Guatemala, Lidia Garcia, explains the aim(s) of the programme:

“[...] we don’t want them to depend on Mercado Global solely as their source of income. What we do is to strengthen their skills through technical training and empower them to become entrepreneurs[...] this is a huge challenge because being an entrepreneur means that you need to secure capital for your business. We work on their skills and tell them “You’ve got what it takes to succeed”, but we also understand that it won’t happen overnight, they have to keep working.”

To date, 25% of artisans have been able to launch and maintain independent businesses, alongside their work for Mercado Global.

COVID | The Artisan Experience

Whilst Mercado Global’s approach ultimate goal is for artisans not to be entirely reliant on them, the reality was that in the first months of the pandemic, they were dependant on the company for work, income and food supplies, as market and public transport closures, curfews, travel and community restrictions prohibited the movement of goods and people. Ruth Alvarez-DeGolia described the complexity of the situation, with negotiations taking place with the Guatemalan government and community groups, to gain access across imposed borders between municipalities to provide food aid and deliver materials so the artisans could continue to work.

The onset of Covid-19 prompted a shift in gender responsibilities in many households, with artisans working for Mercado Global becoming the sole income provider, responsible for feeding and taking care of the whole family. They also found themselves in the new role of essential workers, as they began to sew masks for their communities and hospitals. The value of the artisans’ financial literacy soon became apparent, as the women were able to continue working using their own (self-financed) machines, and with savings providing some degree of short-term security. Mercado Global’s Lidia Garcia observes: 

“[...] we saw that the artisans, who had assimilated the importance of saving and were able to do so, felt to some extent relieved to have some savings, not in large amounts, but it surely came in handy.”

COVID | The Business Impact and Pandemic Response

There was much uncertainty amongst the artisans. Not only were they concerned about their own circumstances, they also expressed concern for their colleagues based in the U.S. Through enhanced communication in the form of letters and WhatsApp video recordings, Mercado Global were able to share information about business developments alongside the pandemic, and how the community-based education programme was “re-tooled” to focus on COVID education and prevention.

As an international enterprise Mercado Global was well positioned for working online, and the pandemic allowed them to focus on digital developments; implementing a virtual “train the trainers” model where mask-making video tutorials were distributed by email and WhatsApp. Despite some artisans having no access to a smartphone, they made it work by capitalising on community relationships, as Lidia Garcia describes:

“There were two or three WhatsApp users in each artisan group, and that was enough, because they all live in these small communities close to the other co-op members, and could share the information with their group [...] we had to make sure the artisan receiving the video knew Spanish and could pass the instructions on to non-Spanish speaking artisans in their own language.”

The local artisan co-operative also provided a framework through which to organize aid, identify the needs in each artisan community and to restructure the operational system to ensure that raw materials were delivered to groups in most need. In contrast to their usual process whereby each Friday co-operatives drop-off their completed work and pick up new material resources from the Mercado Global workshop in Panajachel, materials were cut and packaged, trucks were hired and transportation routes established “so that all communities were able to receive materials and deliver their final products”.

As orders for bags and other fashion accessories fell through, the sales team was redeployed to contact hospitals in the U.S. to offer face masks:

“Nobody wanted to buy bags at that time; it was the last thing they wanted then and we started working on masks, by thousands. And in that way, we’ve managed to keep the artisan groups working.”

Artisan Isabel Pixtay highlights the importance of the mask-making, saying “Thank God we have these mask orders. My job with Mercado Global is the only job in the family”.

Mercado Global quickly pivoted to producing medical and non-medical grade face coverings. They secured orders for 5,000 masks with hospitals in New York City, Ohio, and California, Massachusetts, and Vermont, 19,000 masks to New York City postal service workers and housing authority workers, 7,500 masks to non-profit organizations serving HIV and immunocompromised populations, and 2,500 masks to migrant farmworkers in California. Levi’s, Mercado Global’s longest-standing partner, donated denim to produce the first 55,000 non-medical grade masks. This effort resulted in the quarter recording the highest sales in the company’s history and an annual revenue of $1.5 million - approximately 40% more than the previous year.

THE FUTURE

Whilst Mercado Global’s sales growth is reassuring, the organization continues to focus on entrepreneurship and the development of skills to allow the artisans to operate independently of them, to create their own market and meet local needs. Lidia Garcia explains: 

“[...] we are thinking about the needs people have locally and that those needs are filled by the artisans themselves, so we are beginning to assess the needs we have and motivate and train them [the artisans] so that they are suppliers to their own communities and to us.”

Alongside increased consumer awareness and demand for sustainably produced authentic goods, which presents opportunities for fair trade enterprises like Mercado Global, the company also recognises a potential, positive long-term legacy of the pandemic - it has enabled the opportunity to rethink gender roles in a country that has one of the highest gender inequality indexes in the world. Isabel Pixtay, a partnering artisan, shares her experience:

“Before it was just the women who had to take care of the house. I have a sister who isn’t working in a co-op group like us. Her husband doesn’t give her permission to go out [...] In our monthly self-confidence workshops, they talk about how women have rights. Before, people didn’t say that. Men had more rights. But, thank God, we see that we’re equal.”

Mercado Global see this as a profound change, that could form the foundation of a fairer system for women in the future, where the tradition of boys being educated “because, supposedly, men are the family bread-winners” and girls care for younger siblings and undertake chores, has been challenged. According to Garcia, women feel empowered to say “Well, my daughters are also going to go to school”.

“I think this is beautiful; that is, this example for the children of the artisans who are seeing that women also have an important role or they occupy the same position as men in the family. I think it is very important to pass that on to the children, both boys and girls.”

In a country where indigenous women face challenges around machismo and lack of opportunity, Mercado Global is helping to change behaviours that are relational rather than individual.