Saturday, April 05, 2008 Export experts form group
A GROUP of local experts is offering small and medium exporting companies the chance to build niche markets in Europe at less cost than what they will incur when they hire foreign consultants.
The group, which calls itself the Export Marketing Management Local Experts (EMMLE), launched Thursday a series of seminar-workshops to help the export sector in Cebu penetrate the European market.
The local experts launched the seminar-workshop series with the support of the Confederation of Philippine Exporters (Philexport)-Cebu and Center for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries (CBI).
The EMMLE is composed of 40 export consultants who went to the Netherlands last February to undergo export marketing management training given by the Dutch group, CBI.
The first two-day seminar-workshop, held at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino, gave small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the export industry an overview of the European market, considered a target destination of local export products.
“Cost-effective”
Lunaliza Capulong, a member of the EMMLE, said the group’s services are “cost-effective” compared to foreign consultants and will help SMEs find the “right niche” in the European market.
Aside from the seminar-workshops that groups of companies can request through Philexport, she said members of the EMMLE are open to conducting coaching sessions with individual exporters.
Philippine furniture exports are “several notches higher” compared to those of other Asian countries, said EMMLE member Jojoff Escobal.
But to be able to penetrate the European market, the EMMLE said local exporters have to be creative with their marketing strategy.
This is the main objective of the seminar-workshop series.
Opportunities
The first topic tackled by the local export group during the seminar was on various market opportunities available in Europe. The group also provided an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the various export sectors as compared to the country’s Asian competitors, like China and Vietnam.
“By affiliation, other Asian countries would have an advantage over us since they were colonized by Europe. But it doesn’t mean that we can’t catch up,” said Escobal.
Capulong said, though, that the European market is more complex than the US as the European Union is composed of 27 countries with different cultures.
Another major challenge that the group is facing is the low support from the government.
EMMLE members said that during the Ambiente trade fair they attended in Germany, they noticed that some exporters from other countries, like Japan and Thailand, were able to set up their booths collectively since exhibit costs were subsidized by their respective governments.
There were also exhibitors from the Philippines but the companies had to shoulder the cost of their participation in the fair.
The seminar series also aims to train SMEs how to access financial assistance from CBI.
The seminar-workshop series will continue to run within a span of six months. (DME)
