Exporters deem 2007 as a challenging year

With the continuous strengthening of the Philippine peso against the dollar, the year 2007 has been re-graded as one of the toughest and most challenging years for the exporters from all parts of the country especially in Cebu.

During the recent general membership meeting of the Confederation of Philippine Exporters Foundation (Cebu), Incorporated, more commonly known as the Philexport Cebu, stakeholders from Cebu’s exporting industry gathered to discuss issues and concerns of the industry and reviewed the performance of the association for the first 10 months of 2007.

“Philexport today is totally different from the yesteryears. We have grown by leaps and bounds at a dizzying speed. From a strong advocate for the cause of exporters we are rapidly evolving into an all-around full service support organization able to deliver additional value added services to our members,” said Apolinar G. Suarez, Jr. during his welcome address.

This year, Philexport celebrated an important milestone with the celebration of its 15th anniversary. But also this year, many export companies have closed down and streamlined their  operations as the pressure of the strengthening peso continues and the cost of doing their businesses is still high.

“It’s time for us to unite, forge strategic alliances and establish synergies in our sectors by rallying behind our export leaders to face the challenges that lie ahead,” Suarez urged.

In his president’s report, Philexport president Jay Yuvallos noted a growth of the association’s membership from 2003. After having 181 members in 2005, the association has grown to 270 after two years.

The president also presented the highlights of the associations’ activities and achievements for the first 10 months this year and projected year-end events.

As an advocacy, Philexport has been striving to provide exporters with alternatives on how to counter the effects of an appreciating peso. With this inherent problem, a DBP Hedge fund was created and hedging products from other banks were disseminated and taught.

Until December this year the association was able to reduce the wharfage fees from P390 and P260 to P40 for 40-footers and P20 for 20-footers respectively. They were also able to reduce the container security fee from 50 and 20 dollars to 10 dollars for 40 footers and five dollars for 20 footers. They were also able to endorse three big projects that sought funding from the P280 million Export Promotion Fund.

As for their financial highlights, Philexport was able to generate an asset of P7, 027, 878 in 10 months this year and have grown about 23% from the previous year and their equity has been increased 21% generating to about P6, 335, 013. They have also increased their net income 81% from last year that amounted to about P1, 504, 971 in the past 10 months showing a striving industry that is intently battling with difficult times.

This coming November 30 Philexport will be holding Treasures of the South exhibit at the SM City Cebu Trade hall, a joint project with the Cebu Furniture Industries Foundation and the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry.