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Cebu City, Philippines - Going green is the new trend for Cebu's furniture industry to penetrate more international markets.
"There have been a lot of changes in paradigm for Cebu this year. Going green is one of them," said Eric Vincent Casas, president of Cebu Furniture Industries Foundation Inc. (CFIF).
Casas said companies are encouraged to create furniture pieces made of indigenous materials.
"Buyers require us to plant trees, especially the Europeans. There's a particular system that for every tree we cut, we plant 10 trees," he told Cebu Daily News.
He said Pete Delantar of Natures Legacy Eximport Inc. is doing well in the world market because of Naturescast, the company's line of eco-friendly products.
Delantar's products are made of "forest wastes" including dead tree barks and fallen twigs.
Casas also noted that most international agencies provide funding to organizations, which develop environment-friendly furniture items.
CFIF is currently seeking more than a million euro funding from a European agency, said Casas.
The fund, expected to roll out by the end of the year, will be used for series of design development programs which will put emphasis on the environmental sustainability such as materials and processes used.
Earlier, CFIF also sought a grant from the Export Development Council (EDC) to fund its product and material development programs, and the upgrading of the information center.
The entire project costs P7.5 million, said CFIF executive director Ruby Salutan.
Last year, EDC approved the request giving P4 million to CFIF.
The remaining P3.5 million will be CFIF's counterpart to the project and will be generated by the organization.
Casas said the EDC grant is expected to be released within the first quarter of this year.
"This is the least the government can do for us given the exporters' woes brought about by the strengthening of the peso. In product development (seminars), companies are taught how to develop products that will help them keep up with new market trends," he said.
To cope with the strong peso appreciation, furniture companies in Cebu have explored countries in the Middle East and Europe as new markets.
In the meantime, Department of Trade and Industry Central Visayas director (DTI-7) Asteria Caberte said DTI unites with the export industry in employing market diversification as a "key strategy to counter the downside risks of a weaker global economy."
In an economic briefing earlier this month, Caberte said only 17.1 percent of Philippine products were exported to the US in 2007 compared to the 29.8 percent in 2000.
Exports to Hong Kong have increased to 11.5 percent in 2007 from 5 percent in 2000, while exports to Japan have a slight difference with 14.7 percent in 2000 and 14.5 percent in 2007.
