CITEM showcases Philippines export products in global trade shows

CEBU, Philippines —  The Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM) is intensifying its digital drive under the new normal by aggressively promoting Philippine exports all over the world.

The pandemic has not stopped the Philippines’ export markers to participate global trade shows.

This time, Filipino exporters participated in Maison&Objet and More (MOM), an international platform for home, fashion, and lifestyle (HFL) industries that originates in France.

“We are carrying the FAME+ brand, a digital iteration of the Manila FAME—the country’s premier show for the HFL sectors—and the DesignPhillipines banner,” said CITEM Executive Director Pauline Suaco-Juan.

Suaco-Juan noted that the Philippine participation in trade shows under the new normal is an ongoing effort to build the agency’s and its stakeholders’ digital capacities.

“We’re very excited to be facilitating trade and export, primarily done in the digital sphere, by providing our partners with the necessary content,” she said.

In its participation in the first-ever edition of MOM last year, the Philippines caught the attention of trend forecasting authority WGSN, as well as that of typically untapped audience segments in physical trade shows in the country, such as buyers and media from Brazil.

Suaco-Juan added that through content production, where preparations were made while the country was in various iterations of community lockdowns, CITEM and FAME+ exhibitors were able to produce quality digital storefronts. This, in turn, led to exhibitors realizing the importance of content.

“Especially on digital and it’s the flick of a finger and you have half a second to capture potentially thousands of eyeballs, arresting photos are a must,” Suaco-Juan said.

Led by CITEM the Philippine participation in MOM is part of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) agency’s fulfilment of its export promotion mandate, supporting and empowering Philippine designers, brands, and MSMEs as they step on to the global stage.

The Cheque bench, a creation of FAME+ exhibitor Zarate, joins a mélange of pieces available on Maison & Objet and More (MOM) that were selected as favorites by Andrea Marcante and Adelaïde Testa, founders of top Italian design studio Marcante-Testa.

In the hands of designer Jim Zarate-Torres and the artisans he works with, metal diverges from its top-of-mind form of unfeeling grey, instead transforming into light, delicate, and, in the case of the Cheque bench, orange and mint powder-coated steel.

Cited recently by T: The New York Times Style Magazine as one of Italy’s most innovative architecture firms, Marcante-Testa has done consultancies with such brands as Ceramica Vogue and LondonArt, as well as collaborations with the public sector to introduce interior design in neglected spaces.

The award-winning creative director Patti Carpenter  shortlisted the 3- and 5- legged tables by Zacarias 1925 in collaboration with designer Migs Rosales..

Carpenter, who’s also the Principal of carpenter+ Company/Trendscope, has designed, sourced, and created for luxury brands Bloomingdales, Crate & Barrel, and Ralph Lauren.

CITEM is the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) export promotions arm committed to nurturing the global competitiveness of Philippine micro, small and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs), exporters, designers, and manufacturers.        

Through FAME+, sourcing for the new and the now in Philippine design is enabled anywhere, at any pace, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. The ultimate space for Philippine design is in line with the agency’s continuing export-promotion initiatives to ensure that the country’s MSMEs continue to be competitive in the global arena.