The Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Mereseini Vuniwaqa handed over 47 Fijian Crafted' licenses today.
While officiating at the National Craft Exhibition and Awards, Vuniwaqa says 29 of the Fijian Crafted licenses artisans have been identified through the National Women's Expo by the Fiji Arts Council.
She says their journey in this partnership dates back to the first National Women's Expo, resulting in the certification of 52 artisans.
The Minister says over the past 7 years over 1507 products belonging to 319 companies have been licensed.
She says 90 percent of those certified are Micro Small and Medium sized enterprises.
Vuniwaqa says the brand is categorized with different representations, each having to meet a certain compliance criteria in order to get licensed as 'Fijian Made', 'Fijian Product', 'Fijian Packed', 'Fijian Crafted', 'Fijian Grown', 'Fijian Assembled', 'Fijian Designed' and 'Fijian Sewn'.
She says next month a new "Fijian Organic" logo will be launched to become the 9th logo of the Fijian Made‑Buy Fijian Campaign.
Vuniwaqa says today we will now have a total of 257 Fijian Crafted License holders throughout Fiji.
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