Highlighting the resiliency of the industry players and the growing efficiency levels of their existing processes, Cebu’s export sector still continues to collectively hold positive prospects in these times of global economic meltdown contrary to negative reports.
“Bad news has been creating fear and provides a crippling effect to the industry but actually there are still a lot of good things to talk about in the face of challenges because we have much stronger players now and it has been our trademark to weather any storm,” Philexport-Cebu president Jay Yuvallos pointed out in a press conference during their general membership meeting.
Yuvallos said that compared to their high times, it could be noted that these past years has been relatively harder for the export sector considering the softening of their major foreign markets but it does not denote that everyone in the industry is suffering.
“In every situation, there are winners and there are also losers. In today’s hard times with the foreign economies at its downturn, it doesn’t mean that the export industry is no longer a viable business venture,” said Yuvallos.
He said that the closures that have happened in the export sector in these trying times do not directly translate to the fact that the industry is no longer lucrative.
Although some exporters closed due to effects of slowdown, but some of them who closed down operations found greener prospects in other industries, explained Yuvallos.
He said that the good things brought by the crisis is that it made their industry stronger and their players better because they learn to come up with efficient processes, streamlined systems and innovative product designs.
“People in the game are so much stronger because the game requires being so. Only strong players who are resilient enough stayed in the game and these are those who practiced prudence, financial discipline, controlled overhead and did efficient processes,” said Yuvallos.
He advised the sector to look at the crisis as a challenge to improve rather than a threat that will put on hold any opportunities for further growth.
“What will happen if everybody starts to be so afraid and starts to put breaks to everything that we do? It’s our choice if we want to be affected with the crises. It’s up to us on how we deal on these economic challenges but it will be our fault if the recession starts hitting us,” he added.
Apolinar Suarez, a trustee in the furniture sector of Philexport stressed that if there were players in the sector who have closed down operations; there are also many new players who came in.
In fact he reported that the export industry in the national level is still positive that this year they will still achieve a three to four percent increase over that of last year.
Jennifer Cruz, past president of the Cebu Gifts, Toys and Housewares Foundation (Cebu GTH) said that their buyers remain confident with our export sector because they have seen the resiliency of the players.
“The chances for our products are still high especially that now we have more efficient processes. All of us have learned from previous crises we encountered and in the end of this recent crisis we surely will be more efficient,” he said.
In fact just recently, a big store chain from the United States operating over 1, 700 stores was in Cebu to look for products in 2009 and Cruz’ company was among the many vendors who was able to generate pending orders from this company.
Cruz said that this big buyer also went around to its other suppliers in China, Vietnam and Thailand but they gave his factory a top rating over them because the buyer saw that they have learned during the hard times.
“The name of the game is resiliency and Filipinos are good at it considering that we have been able to weather previous storms such as the strengthening of the peso and the internal political struggles in the country such as coup attempts which has resulted to far worse impacts in the export industry than the current global crisis,” Cruz added.— Rhia de Pablo