Shanghai, China — While the industry moans and groans about the devaluation of South American currency in each country by as much as 25 percent, Isaac Selechnik, principal of Neva Fabric Wholesalers in Guatemala City is growing his fabric business five percent annually serving a population of four million people, he says. Neva is a family enterprise. His wife Aida is in charge of finance; his son Jonathan, 32, is in furniture sales and daughters Beverly (35) and Carol also participate in the business. His fourth child, a daughter named Eva Beinberg lives in San Diego and is starting up an upholstery line, which she designed herself. “If Neva makes money, we all make money,” Selechnik laughs. Nobody would expect to see Selechnik in Shanghai for Shanghai Intertextile but nevertheless; there he was at the Holiday Inn West dining room in Shanghai for breakfast in early September surrounded by his friends and admirers. For 40 years, Selechnik has welcomed and smiled to those who visit him.  He is the owner of five showrooms with the main showroom 1,000 square meters in size. He is considered a ‘bible’ of the fabric business with a reputation that is polite and kind. He is one of the most important buyers in the Central American region according to his suppliers. Selechnik buys mainly from China with some product from the USA. Seasoned sales agents like Johnny Keeton of Johnny Keeton Studios, New York and Rolando Henao of Fibers and Colors International also based in New York, say that Selechnik is usually the first customer everyone likes to see when travelling in the South American market.

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Johnny Keeton is someone well known in South America who has called on Isaac Selechnik, principal of Neva and other wholesalers there for many years. Keeton says that Peru, Colombia and Mexico have seen a 25 percent devaluation of their currency against the US Dollar which has slowed business down quite a bit.” “I tell my principals to be in the South American market for the long haul. We have seen the currency highs and lows for 40 years in South America. If you keep going, it will pay off,” Keeton says. “Do not leave the market if the currency drops. Stay with it and you’ll get business.”