About Kantu
Who We Are
Kantu started as a passion project, with love for high quality wool products, primarily from Alpaca. The founders Shamira Umeres Bello and Bauke Bergsma decided to import these products from Peru to The Netherlands.
Amazed by encountering the highest quality Alpaca wools, either treated with the most vibrant natural colors with amazing and elusive designs, or just natural colors of the Alpaca, ranging from soft marble whites to tasteful varieties of browns and beiges, and even the coveted Black Alpaca wools.
Our Journey to Andes
The founders journeyed through the Andes in 2019 and realized a potential for communities to thrive in a sustainable manner as done long before. In 2021 there was also the epiphany that just providing direct aid does not help, but rather harm communities in the Andes. By just providing aid with no further vision or incentives, these communities have become entangled in webs increasingly hard to escape from.
To break the vicious cycle, Kantu aims to provide opportunities for local communities, creating potential for employment and self-empowerment, through transparent and sustainable networks.
The Alpaca are key to the success of local communities. By creating shared value through developing loveable Alpaca products, families are supported with job and food security. This in turn provides families means for education, which positively affects communal developments.
Kantu believes that the future holds potential, which resonates with the inspiration provided by the artists, creating designs that are influenced by ancient esoteric knowledge and our current temporal realities. It is Kantu’s vision to use the elegance of nature as a timeless aspect, joining the ancient past with the inventive future.