Gifts, toys sector looks into green processes

CITING the growing global demand for green products and methods, export companies under the gift, toys, and houseware (GTH) sector recently adopted a new strategy in its approach on the European Union-funded Smart Cebu Project.

“Smart Cebu is a very abstract project that needs, first and foremost, a change in mindset of the stakeholders,” Cebu GTH president Ramir Bonghanoy told Sun.Star Cebu.

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He said the group has conducted activities aimed at raising awareness on green production processes.

The sector has adopted a strategy called nucleus assemblies, where they gather a group of decision-makers for focused group discussions among member-companies to think of activities related to the Smart Cebu project.

He said that the sector has already put in place two “nucleus counselors” in their office.

The Smart Cebu Project, which was launched last June, aims to help Cebu home and lifestyle industries switch to cleaner production processes and become competitive in the green markets of Europe.

Three of Cebu’s export industries—furniture, fashion accessories and GTH—will get assistance to convert to cleaner production processes and develop eco-friendly product lines for the European green market. The plan is for Cebu to become the “green export capital” of the country.

The EU and the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development allocated 1.2 million euro as a grant for the project.

Aside from maximizing benefits of the project, Bonghanoy said the GTH sector is also aggressive in maintaining their presence in international trade fairs abroad.

“Our main concern is that most of the foreign buyers do not anymore include our own Citem (Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions) shows in their travel list. That is why we have to be more aggressive in our presence in international shows,” he said.

He said the easiest and the least expensive of the shows is the trade fair in Hong Kong. About 11 exhibitors from the Cebu GTH will be participating in the Hong Kong show on Oct. 20 to 23.

He said the group already sought financial help for their participation from the Export Development Council.

Aside from Hong Kong, the sector will also participate in the Ambiente in Frankfurt and study the possibility of joining Poland shows.