By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

An award-winning electronic platform intended to unlock $6 million in annual sales for Bahamian indigenous “treasure” is in danger of being squandered, its key architect has warned.

Don Demeritte, co-ordinator for the Bahamas Virtual Platform, said the project - designed to provide local handicraft artisans with access to a global customer base - had been stalled for three years.

Calling for “unbridled” commitment by both the private and public sectors to bring the project to fruition, Mr Demeritte said it was 75 per cent complete and required a further 10-12 weeks’ work to “go live”.

He added that had the Virtual Platform received “one-tenth to one-quarter” of the $9 million budget handed to Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival by the Government, the results would be “exponentially better”.

Expressing fears that an opportunity to expose Bahamian handicrafts, their supply chains and Family Island economies to the world market could be lost, Mr Demeritte also warned that local intellectual property in the technology field would not receive its due reward.

While part-financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Virtual Platform was “birthed” in the Bahamas and was among just seven of 212 proposals from the Caribbean and Latin American region to secure a grant.

“We were top seven out of 212 to use information and communications technology (ICT) to advance a particular industry,” Mr Demeritte said. “We married with the handicraft industry and BAIC to develop an award-winning concept.

“As we speak of ‘best in class’ and award-winning opportunities, the IDB told Trinidad to speak to the team from Bahamas.” Mr Demeritte added that Trinidad’s concept involved carnival costumes.

The Virtual Platform co-ordinator said the project “began faltering in 2012”, a year that coincided with a general election.

“The system has been developed,” Mr Demeritte added. “It’s there virtually. We need to do the last chapter.

“If we had one-tenth, one-quarter of the budget of the carnival, the results would be exponentially better. There’s so much land to be conquered. The horse-run trot is not complete yet.”

Mr Demeritte said the IDB was “upset we’re not at home base yet, and added: “The IDB is wondering why the hell the Bahamas has not embraced and completed this, and the artisans are wondering what has happened to us.

“We’ve been on seven islands, and it’s basically been three years of stalling. The objective was to expose handicraft artisans and their value chain colleagues to the global market. They needed a conduit to market.”

The ‘pilot project’ islands included Abaco, Exuma, Long Island and the MICAL constituency. Mr Demeritte told Tribune Business that outstanding issues include “hammering out” Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with artisans’ associations, and individuals, on those islands.

These would govern ‘terms of usage’, and how they will engage with the Virtual Platform to market and sell their wares.

“What we don’t want is for them to use us as an activity board and try to do their own thing, eroding the strength of the cluster,” Mr Demeritte told Tribune Business.

Calling for all government agencies, not just BAIC and the Ministry of Tourism, to give “full commitment” to the Virtual Platform, Mr Demeritte added: “This thing is predicated on the full and unbridled commitment of the private sector with the Government.

“The world recognises what we have, but the bottom line is that it has not been exploited. It would probably be larger than the Junkanoo Carnival in its first year.”

The Virtual Platform will function as an Internet-based portal, giving Bahamian handicraft artisans the opportunity to market and sell their creations to a global client base - especially former visitors to this nation.

Mr Demeritte said many of the Bahamas’ six million plus annual visitors were “very happy” to purchase authentic Bahamian handicrafts valued at $80 and upwards if they could see a ‘made in the Bahamas’ stamp on it.

Suggesting this would boost cultural and heritage tourism, he added that the Virtual Platform has the ability to identify every product sold through it.

These would include the island where they were created, when they were shipped and when they were delivered. Virtual Platform users will also include retailers, wholesalers and preferred customers.

“Our projections were simple,” Mr Demeritte said. “There will not be a loss. We know from market research that it would be easy to touch 60,000 customers through the Bahama Virtual Platform.

“That was the very low hanging fruit we plucked off. That speaks to 5,000 sales per month, which is not anything at all.” With products valued at an average $80, and $20 added in management and shipping fees, Mr Demeritte and his team are estimating initial annual sales revenues at a “minimum” $6 million.

He suggested that products sold through the Virtual Platform could include hats, bags, book and ipad covers, and added: “It speaks to a demand-led concept as opposed to pockets of folks developing things willy nilly that they could never sell.

“Handicrafts is a billion dollar industry; one of the biggest growing industries in the world. It’s huge in retail and wholesale sales. The value chain is huge.”

Mr Demeritte said the Virtual Platform would also help develop the handicrafts supply chain between different Bahamian islands.