Tuesday, August 12, 2008 Philexport offers search tool, counselling to local exporters
WHEN the development project of the Canadian International Development Agency came to a close, it left behind a huge database of market information to the Confederation of Philippine Exporters (Philexport) Inc.-Cebu for free.
This database is now available online as Isearch, a web-based market information system for exporters. It is a service maintained by Philexport-Cebu with the support and funding of the Private Enterprises Accelerated Resource Linkage (Pearl) Phase 2 and the Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI) of the Netherlands.
Philexport-Cebu president Jay Yuvallos told Sun.Star Cebu that the service provides exporters a “wealth of information on European Union markets” through CBI’s database.
Through Isearch, users can view, search for and download basic market information on selected industries, such as furniture, houseware, holiday decor, costume and fine jewelry, footwear and leather goods, as well as the health and wellness sector. It also contains pre-processed statistics, data tables, charts and graphs that give the user market information on key market trends per industry sector.
Market studies
It is also capable of doing fee-based special market studies for interested clients, such as identification of new potential markets, competitor profiles, and market trends analysis, among others.
Philexport-Cebu members can access Isearch for free through Philexport’s website. Non-members can access it in 30 days after registration.
Philexport-Cebu complements Isearch with the services of its Export Training and Coaching Center (ETCC), which is geared toward export marketing management, as well as its market development services.
“We have a marketing expert, who helps in the processing of the data, turning it into information that can be used for decision-making by company owners,” Yuvallos said.
Philexport-Cebu executive director Fred Escalona said the exporter will find a lot of useful market information on the database.
Coaching center
“We want to develop exporters through our coaching center that will utilize market information from Isearch so that it will (have) a more holistic approach,” said Yuvallos.
Escalona said that the immediate target of this new service are European Union countries.
“We have been dealing with bigger countries (in Europe) for some time. However, we don’t know yet what the demand for the Philippine products will be by countries such as Bulgaria and Romania. These are new markets. We need to be ahead of our neighbors by penetrating them,” he said.
Due to foreign donors, investment on the part of Philexport for its three programs—Isearch, ETCC, and market
development—is very little, he said.
“We have been attracting a lot of funding agencies and potential partners because our program(s) (are) very comprehensive,” he said. (NRC)
