Every round of it comes best with growing number of participants and bigger sales on record espoused by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in time for the Bohol Day-Sandugo celebration.
Now on its 11th round, the annual Sandugo Trade Expo opened last Wednesday with 123 exhibitors from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, showcasing handicrafts, furniture, food products and artworks.
This is the biggest number of exhibitors in a Sandugo Trade Expo, according to DTI Regional Director Aster Caberte during an interview with The Chronicle.
Visitors trooped to The Block at the Island City Mall yesterday to feast on the featured travel retail market products, souvenir items, handicraft, processed food, home and office decors, fashion accessories, gifts items, toys, and woven bags and mats, among others.
Caberte, a Boholano, looks forward to sales surpassing last year’s record of around P20 million while the Trade Expo will be opened until Monday.
DTI-Bohol came up with the theme, “Sustaining gains. Fostering innovation. Going full speed,†for this year’s event.
Sandugo Trade Expo also features an array of novelty items and indigenous products.
Caberte said there are exhibitors coming from Region 6 or Western Visayas, Region 8 or the Eastern Visayas, Regions 9 and 10 in Mindanao, provinces from Bicol region, and the Negros Island Region, aside from the home-region- -Central Visayas.
She said the trade expo serves as venue for the small-scale cottage industry producers, and for innovations in local One-Town-One-Product (OTOP) marketing strategy.
Caberte invites Bohol residents to check out the array of products from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., so they could appreciate the creativity of local producers from different parts of the country.
Last year, the Sandugo Trade Expo generated P21 million of sales for over 100 exhibitors, surpassing the 2014 record of P20 million in overall sales.
Caberte, however, cited that a bigger percentage of the 2014 sales comprised of under-negotiation sales; while the bigger sales in 2015 had been attributed to cash sales and booked orders.
Raffia and loom weavers from Tubigon have been topping in booked orders of considerable value.
She also noted that last year was inspiring since the sales already reached P1.4 million on the first day, even before the official opening.
Top sales last year came from processed food and high-end products by exporters from Cebu and other regions such as house wares, home decors, furniture, and fashion accessories that had been noted to have attracted most of the consumers.
The DTI had been conducting intensive product development that helped producers in coming up with excellent collection of products for the trade expo.
During the opening ceremony at the activity center of ICM, Caberte conferred plaques of recognition to partners which included Bohol Small and Medium Enterprise Council, Bohol Association of Hotels Resorts and Restaurants, Provincial Tourism Council, GIZ, Bohol Island State University, Process Bohol, European Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines Cebu, Consumer Watch Bohol Inc, Alturas Group of Companies, BUSWAC, Bohol ICT Council, the city government of Tagbilaran and the provincial government of Bohol.
DTI also honored outstanding LGUs which topped the nationwide 2016 National Competitiveness Index.
For government efficiency, Calape ranked No.1, Corella ranked No.7, and Balilihan ranked No. 10.
For economic dynamism, LGU Jagna ranked No. 7.
The City Government of Tagbilaran went up nine notches from 34th among component cities in 2015 to 25th in this year.
The provincial government of Bohol also improved from rank 54th in 2015 to rank 36th in 2016.
The National Competitiveness Index scores according to 3 pillars: Economic Dynamism, Government Efficiency, and Infrastructure.