Started in 1976, when Kommaly Chanthavong gathered 10 internally displaced and desperately poor women weavers from her home province of Hua Phan, Xam Neua, and initiated the Phontong Handicraft Cooperative. In 1990, Phontong and Camacraft joined ventures to assist Hmong hill tribe and Lao village women by utilising their artistic resources to design handcrafted products as a means to social and economic recovery. In 1993, Mulberries organic silk farm was established as a research and model silk farm. The purpose of the farm is to revive and encourage the Lao traditional practice of silk fibre production, by providing training and support in silk worm rearing, art and craft practices of weaving. Today the cooperative consists of 3,000 farmers, weavers and artisans from over 200 village families.
