ABSTRACT
As distinct from what is reported or assumed about the situation elsewhere in the world, there are few forward links to the formal sector and international markets through the global supply chain, via the purchase of micro-firm outputs or labour. There are cases of subcontracting, direct contracting and buying up, and these have also been changing over time. However, less than 3% of artisans produce for intermediaries. The concept of subcontracting, or homeworking, has been important in the recent literature on the role of the informal sector in global supply systems and there has been a steady increase in the small numbers of artisans producing for the private sector in Quito. These customers, however, are mainly small-scale traders and other artisans, not enterprises that are part of the global supply chain linking petty producers to markets in the developed world. For the older artisans, the customers remain overwhelmingly individuals, many of whom have been clients for over 40 years and who are now dying off, along with the artisans themselves.
