During a recent Innovation’s Fair attended by an exporter held in Minnesota in the United States of America, Visayas OTOP products received a positive demand potential from America’s second biggest retailer.
According to Jennifer Cruz, the President of Cebu Gifts, Toys, and House wares Association (Cebu-GTH), more than 1, 000 exhibitors from all over the world participated in the said fair.
He shared “there were interests from the products that were presented like weaved placemats and baskets. The number of inquiries generated were good enough for our products.”
Cruz also added saying, “although they have not placed orders but they have chosen our designs and samples and the result will be known in about six months.”
He said that the buying quantity for the placemats are 100,000 pieces per design and 4,000 to 20,000 baskets per design.
Cruz shared that it was his first time to join such a big fair as the process was based on selection. His company was chosen to represent the Visayas region while two more exhibitors came from Luzon.
Prior to the event, Cruz together with the DTI Region 7 gathered different products from the different regions in the Visayas which included house wares, baskets, placemats, and bags, among others.
“The OTOP project can really develop certain products and there is a chance or a potential for us to grow,” he said.
After the fair, Cruz trained more than 1,000 weavers from Siquijor, Talisay Carcar and in different towns in Bohol to be able to produce the requested samples.
“It’s true that the industry is not doing very well these days due to the strong peso but we need to start looking at other market potentials then produce and design products that are not yet available in other countries,” noted Cruz.
In this kind of trade, innovation according to Cruz is very important as it is our only way to continually compete in the global marketplace.
He said that the demand of the US market these days are more focused on organic, natural, ecological and sustainable products. He also pointed out that Vietnam is slowly emerging as our major competitor. —Rhia de Pablo