Almost every family in the Philippines owns one or more handicraft products like baskets, brooms, feather dusters, bamboo sofa set, cabinets, and other furniture. Accessories like earrings, bracelets, necklaces, and other clothing apparel which young people today are fond of wearing are also made from native products like beads, shells, seeds, and others. This is a clear indication that our handicraft industry is enjoying the patronage of Filipinos nationwide.

Philippines is blessed with rich natural resources that are scattered throughout its 7,107 islands. These God-given natural wonders are the sources of people's food, shelter, and other basic needs. After some time, people acquired many skills that enabled them to tinker with nature. They used the raw materials from trees, plants, and other natural resources that are very abundant and turned them into simple, yet useful tools or instruments.

Today, many Filipinos are engaged in handicraft businesses. Handicraft-making has become a means of livelihood for them, especially now that many handicraft owners are exporting their products to Japan, United states, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and other countries around the world.

The Philippines is the second largest world producer of handicrafts, mainly baskets out of indigenous materials. This industry continues to provide a respectable contribution to foreign exchange earning of the country (US$71.9M in 2000) while many handicraft items are also sold on the local market. All together, the sector is providing livelihood to more than 1 million Filipinos. Although the industry has experienced some setbacks over the last ten years, it has kept the respect of the high-end markets in the United States, European Union, and Japan and has only lost a great part of the low-end market to China, our main competitor.

Despite this, Filipino craftsmen have indigenously overcome scarcity and increasing prices of raw materials by constantly producing new designs for their products. Over the years, Philippine handicrafts have evolved through innovative changes in designs reinforced by exciting choices and combination of indigenous materials. There is, however still ample room for improvement, particularly in remote upland communities with little access to market information, brokering services, capital, and technologies for value addition.

Aside from these, the handicraft industry is important because of the following reasons:

It promotes our cultural heritage through the use of indigenous materials.

Handicraft products show an individual's creativity and lofty imagination.

Producers of raw materials will be encouraged to produce more.

Employment is generated especially for the undergraduates.

Values of perseverance and industry are developed.

Source: https://discover.hubpages.com/art/Philippine-Handicraft-IndustryTheir-Benefits-and-Importance