Exporters told to work together

CEBU, Philippines – An officer of the Foreign Buyers Association of the Philippines (FOBAP) urged Cebu-based exporters to start consolidating efforts to meet the requirements and demand of bigger clients from abroad.

“The reason why the Philippines is not getting bigger orders from abroad is that up to now, we do not want to work together. Through not working together, we create competition within the country and at the same time strengthening the factories abroad because we drive buyers to them,” said FOBAP chairman and president Eliseo C. Miranda during the recent Cebu Gift, Toys and Houseware Foundation Inc. (Cebu-GHT) general membership meeting.

“Our competitors like China, Indonesia, Thailand and other countries do not have big factories but their exporters work together and so they are able to accept bigger bulk of orders. Why can’t we work together like they do? This way we can attract bigger clients,” Miranda added.

He presented FOBAP’s on-going project called as Redux to World Class Retailers which is a focused marketing approach that will enable Philippine exports to gain grounds in the bigger marketplace abroad.

Miranda explained that project Redux will target world-class retailers who have at least 30 outlets all over the world that will make Philippine exports gain wider mileage in terms of market exposure and sales abroad.

He said that the project will capitalize on strong product development but it will have to require client commitments so that every placed order for previous year should be equivalent to that of the forthcoming year plus $600 so to allow growth amidst a shrinking market.

Miranda said that the main strategy of the project is to make these retailers rely on us for their supplies just on time when the market improves.

“This strategy will prevent further shrinking and will give us growth and we can also maintain our market share,” he said.

Miranda said that due to the economic recession, there have been store shakeouts worldwide while some stores are clearing inventories and doing market repositioning while some are cutting down on staff and doing other cost-saving measures for the first quarter of this year

He said that for second half of the year, it should be expected that the market will settle down and stores will have low inventories after selling their items at lesser prices.

Miranda said that everyone will be preparing for recovery at this point so exporters from all over the world should expect good orders for the spring and summer of 2010 and this will be the target of the Redux project.

He said that this particular project has already been made in the past and it was the project of former first lady Imelda Marcos.

“We saw it as a good project so we are reviving it and we are sure that it can give Philippine products a chance to be exposed to the world through the help of these world-class retailers,” said Miranda.

The project initially targets 10 popular retailers, four of which will be coming from US, four from Europe while two from other countries and as of the moment, two famous retail chains already confirmed their commitment with the project in writing and these include popular outdoor furniture store Smith & Hawken and Freedom.

Miranda said that other retailers were also identified but were still put on hold like J.C. Penney, Marks & Spencer, Harrods, Ripley, Saks 5th, among others because FOBAP is still waiting for the P142 million fund from the Export Development Council (EDC) which will be allocated for store promotions, product development, training for manufacturers, and hiring designers and the people who will work on the project.

“By doing this kind of marketing approach, we can help our exporter-manufacturers to target specific markets instead of blindingly hitting different targets. With the intensifying competition, it’s really about time we consolidate our efforts to put the Philippines back on the radar of international buyers,” said Miranda. – THE FREEMAN