"Dako kaayo ug natabang ang kining OTOP trade fair sa akong negosyo," (The OTOP Trade Fair has been a big help to my business), thus enthused Christina Angana, a small-time exporter of fashion accessories in Cebu City.
Angana is one of the 160 entrepreneurs coming from Regions 6, 7 and 8 that is joining the five-day '3rd One Town, One Product (OTOP) Visayas Island Fair' in Cebu City.
During a PIA forum this morning that featured the marketing event, Angana bared that since the annual OTOP Trade Fair was launched three years ago, her establishment called Hanas has since then participated in the yearly activity.
Last year, Hanas was able to sell all its displayed products in Boracay Island in Aklan during the 2nd OTOP Trade Fair held in Region 6.
Angana said that last year, she paid P5,000 for the booth and displayed an array of products mostly fashion accessories and bags made of local raw materials from Cebu worth P120,000. After the fair, her capital grew by 60 percent more, Angana added.
Angana said her small company is still very new of about five years so she needs all the promotion and marketing she could get to attract new and potential buyers.
The annual OTOP Visayas Island Fair is initiated by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) from Regions 6, 7 and 8 as an effective marketing strategy to provide an avenue for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to showcase their products using raw materials indigenous to their hometown or services that promote their area as a tourism destination.
As the trade fair kicked off today that will last until Sunday, Angana said she paid P4,000 for the booth displaying products worth P150,000 as she is optimistic that all her items will be sold and since the venue is Cebu City, she will have no problems getting stocks once all her items will be sold out.
Angana said her products are made of raw materials found in Cebu's various towns like the coco shells of Pardo, the wood from Asturias and other local materials from Bohol, Carmen and Badian.
Some of her bags are already exported to Japan and Dubai, according to Angana.
Through the annual OTOP Trade Fair, "my products will be able to get more attention and attract the local market," claimed Angana.
Elias Tecson, DTI-Cebu Project Management Division Chief said the OTOP Program said there are 33 MSMEs from Cebu that are participating in the trade fair while the total participants from Central Visayas number 57.
Tecson said the OTOP Program which basically supports MSMEs to manufacture, offer and market distinctive products or services through the use of indigenous materials and local skills and talents is designed to encourage entrepreneurship and local patronage of native products as well as generate employment in the countryside.
Business counseling, skills and entrepreneurial training, product design and development, appropriate technologies and marketing are the assistance provided to MSMEs under the OTOP Program, Tecson further said.
In case a small entrepreneur lacks capital to go into mass production, the DTI also helps in facilitating a financial loan to the government financial institutions, Tecson said.
The DTI is the OTOP project's marketing arm although it is a collaborative effort among national government agencies like the Department of Science and Technology, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), Department of Tourism, government financial institutions and the private sector as most importantly, the local government units (LGUs), this is learned.
Tecson urged the public to patronize local products to help the MSMEs as this will also have an impact to the local economy and help provide jobs. (PIA)
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