THE Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (Citem) said it earned over P6.73 billion in export, domestic and retail sales over the last five years, and expects to generate around P843 million for the staging of its twice-yearly trade exhibition in April and October 2017.
“Manila FAME has been a sourcing destination for global quality and finely crafted furniture and home furnishings, holiday gifts and decors, and fashion accessories from the country’s top, as well as emerging, design talents and manufacturers,” said Citem Project Management Department Manager (DM) Romleah P. Ocampo during the event’s press launch last March 30 at HallOne of Golden Shell Pavilion, Roxas Boulevard corner Sen. Gil J. Puyat Avenue in Pasay City.
From 2012 to 2016, she said this show produced P5.96 billion in export sales, P589.4 million in domestic sales, and P183 million in retail sales. Also, it supported close to 2,600 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
Out of the total 8,418 foreign buyers, 22.8 percent came from the Americas; 21.1 percent, Europe; and 20.4 percent, East Asia. The top buying countries covered 64 percent of overall foreign sales.
The United States accounted for 19 percent; Japan, 15 percent; Australia, 6 percent; Hong Kong, 5 percent; Singapore, 5 percent; Germany, 3 percent; France, 3 percent; Taiwan, 3 percent; China, 3 percent; the United Kingdom, 2 percent; and other countries, 36 percent.
“For the 65th edition of Manila FAME, we aim to further push the numbers as we expand our market’s hold to the contract markets across the Middle East, Asia and the Philippines,” she said, adding around 17,000 job opportunities are expected to be opened for staging the trade exposition twice in the country this year.
“Manila FAME will continue to position the Philippines as a premier sourcing hub for home, lifestyle and interior-design solutions for the real-estate and hospitality-contract markets,” she said.
Citem, the export promotions arm of the Department of Trade and Industry, is bullish on achieving this year’s sales target on the back of the continued interest to this yearly affair.
In fact, over 300 homegrown MSMEs are joining the first leg of this trade event that will take place at the World Trade Center Metro Manila and the Philippine Trade Training Center from April 21 to April 23.
Also, importers, retailers, wholesalers, merchandising agents, traders, architects and interior designers across 9 foreign markets have already started signing up for their attendance. They come from the US, Canada, Japan, South Korea, China, Germany, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Australia.
“We’re about 98 percent booked. In fact, we have to say ‘no’ to the late registrants. I think it is going to be a very, very interesting show,” he said.
Aside from the positive turnout for this business- sourcing platform, Citem is on track to reach its goal given the country’s constant participation in the export industry’s overseas marketing events and a strengthened collaboration with business-support organizations.
Citem Executive Director Clayton Tugonon said they will continue to broaden the base of the nation’s local artisans and designers to create world-class products.
“I will continue to comb every corner of the islands in search of companies I can push their limits to become exporters. We will institute more strategic and rationalized support system to equip them to produce export ready products,” he said.
The export market is so huge it needs more domestic players to enable the country’s presence felt in this field. Unfortunately, the Philippines still holds a very small share of it, he said.
“If I’m not mistaken, we’re partaking only three percent of this sector for home furniture and furnishings, fashion accessories,” Ocampo told the BusinessMirror at a sideline interview.
She said Citem will intensify its product- development program that would benefit more of the country’s small and medium scale manufacturers, as well as champion the nation’s export competitiveness in the global market through Manila FAME.
“It’s a lot of hard work. It’s a combination of different factors,” Ocampo said. “We have to have a critical mass of exhibitors. That’s one. And then for the buyers, especially for those who are coming from far- away places, it has to be beneficial for them.”
Because foreign buyers look for something new, she encouraged exhibitors to create a good number of their latest products developed for the show.
Tugonon agreed with her, while emphasizing ingenuity and innovation as competitive factors for local products to be at par in the international market.
“We have to be innovative. We have many materials that are only available in the Philippines. Designs can be copied, but materials, never. We have to look around so we can make something out of it and sell,” Tugonon said. “All we have to do is tweak our styles. Just imagine in the next five years, we keep on making new designs, we will be back to being the ‘Milan of Asia’ years ago.”
Since competition is always present in the export business, price becomes the differentiator that makes Philippine-made products trail behind those in Vietnam, China, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, among others.
The market positioning for local products as having “better quality, workmanship and designs” makes them more expensive than their counterparts in the region which, eventually, turns off the foreign market, Ocampo said. “Many of the buyers would be wiling to pay a little more for quality and craftsmanship, but not too ridiculously high.”
“That’s the problem with some of our export companies here who are very focused on the design, They tend to forget whether their products are still sellable and marketable or not,” she said.
To help address this concern, she said Citem provides exporters with learning programs on the right pricing and costing.
“This should be commensurate to their product-development efforts. We help them on how to put the price to a lower level so that they can combine both design quality with the right pricing,” she said.
Another aspect of the export business that needs to be practiced here is the adherence to international standards, such as those of environmental, social and labor laws.
“We are a little behind in terms of compliance. So that’s what we are trying to work on together with the Design Center of the Philippines and the DTI [Department of Trade and Industry],” Ocampo said.
“Citem will help expand the base of export-capable MSMEs and Filipino world-class designers,” Tugonon added.
Image credits: Nonoy Lacza