Exporter banks on demand for natural-based products

CEBU, Philippines - Despite the slump in the export market, especially for furniture products, Cebu-based fashion accessory exporter, AB Soberano International Corporation finds strength in the market’s strong demand for natural-based products.

AB Soberano International Corporation president Jose R. Soberano III said the market for fashion accessory has slowly rebounded. The Philippines is seen to benefit from the growing demand for environment-friendly products such as wood, coconut shells, sea shells, and other fashion accessories that are made from indigenous and natural-based raw materials.

He said exporters who survived amid the severe market slump that lingered for the past few years due to the US and Europe economic recession, are now slowly seeing the light at the end of the tunnel considering the changing trend of accessory fashion in the world market.

“The market is moving sideways now—a bit up. This is because the trending of fashion is what we are good at,” said Soberano.

In recent shows in Hong Kong and Paris, Soberano said his company has seen positive indications of a recovering market for fashion accessories. He admitted that in the last few years, there was a strong temptation to close up because of the slump.

“Those who stayed are now benefiting from the recovery,” he said.

He said resiliency is an advantage for most Cebu exporters, “they continue to be around. The option to close shop was there, but most of us stayed because we have responsibilities also to our workers.”

Soberano’s export business has been operational for 25 years. It directly employs over 300 employees, and hundreds of sub-contractors.

The company’s clients abroad include Marks & Spencer, and other world known signature brands.

Earlier, the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (PhilExport) has announced its move to aggressively promote the green exports campaign, following the adoption of this particular program as priority focus of the newly issued Export Development Plan.

In a statement, PhilExport said that green exports or greening of exports, was adopted as new strategy of the three-year export plan recently approved by Department of Trade and Industry (DTI0 secretary Gregory Domingo, that will be pushed by both exporters and their partners in the government starting this year.

The plan was also coordinated by the semi-government Export Development Council (EDC).

Green exports are defined by the EDC as natural and organic products (NOP). Their inclusion as a special focus of attention was motivated by the fact that the market out there has grown to become a trillion dollars a year based on figures gathered by the Bureau of Export Trade Promotions (BETP).

"There is an expanding sector in the Philippine exporting community engaged in NOP and related enterprises successfully promoting Filipino talent and natural resources, “the EDC said. (FREEMAN)