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Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) entrepreneurs of the different local government units (LGUs) in the fifth district will have a venue to display their locally-made products in a trade fair in Danao City this month.
The fair organized by Rep. Ramon ?Red? Durano VI will be held in an open space fronting the Danao City Civic Center from Dec. 18 to 21.
The fair called the Red Christmas Bazaar will also provide opportunity for business match up because entrepreneurs can introduce locally available raw and indigenous materials like the abaca and soli-soli to big time manufacturers.
Durano has also tied up with the Department of Trade and Industry in Central Visayas (DTI 7), which helped Durano to identify the different industries in the 11 LGUs in his district.
Durano said DTI 7 will help the participating SMEs through product development and business management seminars and trainings.
The fifth district consists of Danao City and the municipalities of Carmen, Liloan, Sogod, Compostela, Catmon, Borbon and Pilar, Poro, San Francisco and Tudela in Camotes Island.
Durano said that their town has over 50 SMEs that are engaged in the food, drinks, jewelry, fashion accessories, handicrafts, furniture , house decorations and supplies, steel and metal crafts, stone crafts, garments, handguns, pottery, shell crafts, books and paper products, sports goods and toys, beauty and health products, vehicle equipment, shoes and slippers , novelty items and other services.
Durano, however, said they wanted to focus their first ?Red Christmas Bazaar? on the products of 25 pre-selected SMEs.
Displays will include food and delicacies like the famous rosquillos of Liloan, torta, budbud, otap, goat cheese, masi and galletas, shell crafts, sinamay handicrafts from Carmen, house decorations, furniture, ornaments, slippers and fashion accessories.
Aside from the famous gun industry in Danao, Durano said they also wanted to promote other existing but less developed and less known industries in his district.
The soli-soli of San Francisco town, which is a kind of grass, is a good raw material for the manufacture of woven products like hats and mats.
He said there are also areas in his district that are known for growing abaca.
?Danao City (for example) is trying its best to market itself aside from being the handgun capital of the Philippines,? he said.
Meanwhile, Department of Trade and Industry Cebu Provincial Office (DTI-CPO) said that the One Town, One Product (Otop) Visayas Island Fair last month earned P26.3 million from the fair sales.
This is more than a 100 -percent increase from the last year P3.4-million sales. The 2007 fair was held on Boracay Island, Aklan province.
?This year involves more participants from the three regions. The location of the fair (a mall in Boracay) is also a (contributing) factor (for the increase in sales),? said DTI-CPO program management division chief Elias Tecson.
Cristina Anggana, proprietor of Hannah's Handicrafts in Minglanilla town, said the mall is frequented by several people, who commonly stops to examine the products.
There are many people who watch the product displays. Those who like the products will buy especially that they are affordable,? she said in Cebuano.
Anggana said they sold almost P100,000 worth of bags and hats which were displayed during the five-day fair.
Anggana, who also participated in last year's Otop fair, supplies bags and hats made of sinamay fiber to some malls and pasalubong stores in the country. /With a report from Reporter Cris Evert B. Lato
