Secretary of State for Promotion of Gender Equality (SEPI) Idelta Maria Rodrigues has called on women’s groups involved in the production of Timorese tais to make a variety of tais to suit different budgets and to keep prices affordable.
“People will not buy your tais when it’s expensive,” SE Rodrigues said in Mascarinhas, Dili.
She said SEPI had a plan to promote women’s production of tais through important events such as World Women’s Day celebrations as well as requesting people wear their tais.
“However tais are very expensive; it’s the problem that women’s groups should consider,” SE Rodrigues said.
She said the high cost of tais put them out of reach of many people, particularly Timorese.
SEPI last year requested government members’ wives use their tais in celebrations for World Women’s Day but were told Timorese tais were too expensive.
“It doesn’t mean you sell your tais with low price no but you should base your prices on the average income and economic capacity of everyone,” she said.
Some one-of-a-kind tais should be expensive, she said, but not all tais.
Tais production group representative Adelina Freitas said not all tais were priced the same as some more expensive tais cost more to produce due to labour and material costs.
Tais sold from between $50 and $100, she said.
She said small items such as wallets and accessories could sell for less than $5.
