Monday, November 13, 2006 RP furniture exporters need new int’l markets
FURNITURE exporters in Cebu are pushing for government to subsidize their marketing missions abroad, which are geared towards expanding the industry’s decreasing market.
Michael Basubas, president of the Cebu Furniture Industries Foundation Inc. (CFIF), said there is a need for the country’s furniture exporters to tap new and more high-end markets, as China has already taken over their usual buyers.
“China has encroached on the present markets we have. The only market that China is not into now is the high-end market. Which is why we are going there,” he said an interview.
The problem with tapping more high-end furniture market is that they are few and scattered everywhere, such as the United States, Middle East and Europe, he said.
Expensive
“Tapping this market is (a) very expensive (venture). We also have to go there in droves, such as 50 companies, for us to create an impact,” Basubas said.
In joining international trade fairs and exhibitions, each company usually spends an average of P1 million, he added.
Earlier, Cebu-GTH (gifts, toys and houseware) Manufacturers and Exporters Association Inc. president Jenifer Cruz said a 50-percent government subsidy of the cost of local exporters’ participation in international trade fairs would “greatly help” cushion the industry from issues hounding it.
The group said exporters are suffering from the effects of the appreciation of the peso and the softening of the international market, among others.
Main problem
Basubas said the main problem of the export industry is that China has taken over its markets. This is why the industry really needs financial assistance from the government.
Earlier, Philippine Confederation of Exporters president Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. said the assistance currently being extended by the government to the industry are palliative and do not really address the problems of the sector, particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
President Arroyo has assured exporters that the government is willing to help the sector in any way, except control the currency market.
Directive
Arroyo had directed the Bureau of Plant Industry of the Department of Agriculture not to make exporters pay for overtime work, meal allowances and transportation costs of its personnel who are involved in the fumigation of wooden crates used for shipment of export goods.
While government financing institutions are now developing programs for exporters, the call of exporters to exempt them from paying travel taxes for their overseas trade missions will also be carried out by next month, Ortiz-Luis said.
Ortiz-Luis said the government is also now studying the other pending requests of exporters, such as the further lowering of rediscounting rates of exporters.
But what Philexport wants is for government to be faithful in carrying out the intention of the Magna Carta for SMEs, he said. (JBN)
