Our skilled team at work on seagrass product bound for Australia

About Import Products - Seagrass baskets, Hats, Mats and supplies in Australia

Handmade Seagrass Market Baskets were first introduced to Australia by Import Products in 2000.  We import directly from our designers, the original designers and manufacturers for Europe since the early 1990’s.  Our Company encourages, respects and supports fair trade and opportunity. We continually work with our suppliers developing new styles, colours and designs.

Eco-sustainable

All our products are handcrafted  at village level in Northern Vietnam allowing income into rural communities where employment opportunity is minimal. All our products are entirely natural and organic, grown eco-sustainably. They will not take 1000 years to break down like  plastic bags and even worse the so-called supermarket "green bags". Our baskets are made very strong, will last indefinitely and at the end of their life will break down organically in a few months. Do not be fooled by so called "green" and "Eco" bags, if they are not completely natural and organic they will be around for many lifetimes to come.

The Product

Common Name            -           Seagrass

Botanical Name            -           Zostera Japonica

Seagrass grows in fields near the shoreline, which are watered by sea water.  The harvest starts after 6 months growth or as soon as the grass has reached 2.5 metres height.

The evenness of the blades is essential for the production of all kinds of handwork but before starting the blades are air-dried to enable storage.

For decoration purposes the grass is tinted with natural and artificial non-toxic dye colours.  A food safe German dye is used to conform with export to Europe.

Strong & Durable

Due to the material used and the nature of construction, they are very strong which enables them to be flattened for shipping.

To return their shape at any time one simply needs first to soak by dipping in or spraying heavily with water, then after a short while one can push/pull and bend it the required shape. To remove excess water after shaping, swing quickly with a throwing motion by the handle/s, then leave a short while to dry and it will become firm.  If a crease or fold in a basket will not flatten/shape, soak basket for 2 to 4 minutes (longer than this will NOT damage a basket) it will simply allow any crease to be undone and the basket to be reshaped as desired.