Exporters cope with losses by shifting to local market

With the slowdown in the international export industry, local exporters of Christmas decors are now shifting focus on the domestic market to cope with the losses incurred from the US economic slowdown.

In an exclusive interview with the president of the Christmas Decors Producers and Exporters Association of the Philippines Marlane C. Villa-Real, she said that domestic buyers are now becoming the sector’s alternative market.

She further said that reaching out to the domestic market has allowed Filipino households to take hold of locally-made export quality products.

Villa-Real and 10 other export companies from Manila were in Cebu to participate in the trade fair in line with the Cebu Business Month celebration at the Cebu International Convention Center.

She said that local fairs help their members recover from low sales in their export operations so they maximize their time and effort to explore these alternative opportunities.

Villa-Real shared that some entrepreneurs from their sector decided to close down as they were not able to recover losses from the slowdown in the US economy. Right now despite the stable foreign exchange rate between the peso and dollar, there are still chances that many exporters will close down.

So far, she said that their association has urged their members to sell domestically and diversify into other emerging markets to cope with the situation.

For Christmas decors, peak seasons fall between April to September while lean seasons fall under months of October to March which covers Valentines, Halloween, Easter and Thanksgiving occasions because the volume of sales is not that big.

Villa-Real said that their top international markets include the US before but now they have put more focus on the European markets as well as other emerging markets such as Middle East and Russia.

In terms of competitive advantage, Philippine exports lead in terms of design and this is the main reason why buyers still continue to patronize Filipino products.

“Buyers still come to the Philippines because of our designs and Filipinos understand the meaning and essence of Christmas.

 Foreign buyers always say that our Christmas décors have soul unlike other mass produced decors from China,” she said.

Villa-Real said that in the 80s down to the 90s, sales for Christmas decors went upswing and only after 2000 when influx of China products flooded the market when sales began to fell down due to saturation.

But she said that with the price spikes in the international marketplace, prices for China products have also gone up which makes it more practical to buy Filipino products now because of its design advantage.

For this year, Villa-Real said that their sector is looking at brighter prospects even with just smaller growth percentages of 10 to 15 percent from those previous years.

She added that this year, Christmas decors is heading towards the “shabby chic” designs and not more on the traditional Victorian and colors will be more into metallic. – Rhia de Pablo