Exporters maintain 10% growth target this year

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine exporters are maintaining their 10-percent growth target for 2011 despite the financial crisis in the United States, as they bank on the rising share of the Asian emerging markets in the country’s total exports to improve revenues.

Sergio Ortiz-Luis, president of the Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc. (Philexport), said they are still hopeful of attaining their “fighting target” as other sectors aside from electronics and semiconductor are also doing well.

“When we started the target, we felt it was a walk in the park for us. But because of the problems that came in Japan, in the Middle East, US, Europe, it’s becoming a little harder to attain. So it is really a fighting target. But we adopt not to change it because we feel there is still a good chance that we can hit it,” he said.

Ortiz-Luis said the share of the US market to the country’s total exports has been declining from 34 percent to just 12 percent now.

“We have been replacing the traditional markets with Asian markets, especially China,” he said on the sideline of the ongoing 21st Buy Pinoy Exporters Fair.

June export data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) indicated that Asian markets, including Japan, comprised over 60 percent of Philippine total exports.

The US, which lost its sterling credit rating from Standard & Poor’s, shared a measly 14 percent to total exports during the month.

Ortiz-Luis Jr. is also optimistic that Japan will increase purchases from the Philippines in the second semester, as it is recovering from the destructive impact of the earthquake and tsunami that hit that country in March this year.

“The average share of Japan market (to total exports) before the tsunami was 12 to 14 percent. Now, for the month of June alone, they were 22 percent. This indicates they are recovering because I’m sure many of them are filling up lost inventory plus recovery,” he said.

Ortiz-Luis also attributed the lower first-semester export revenues to the drop in sales of electronic products, still the country’s top dollar earner.

Receipts from electronic products in June alone declined by 23.9 percent to $2.21 billion from $2.9 billion posted last year.

“We probably will be able to attain (our 2011 export target) because other sectors are doing well. But we have to at least even up the performance of semiconductor because it is a big sector to make up,” he said.

Francisco Ferrer, Philexport trustee representing the electronics and semiconductor industry, earlier said export shipments are now higher because of the backlog.