MSMEs reach more buyers and get feedback at PHL trade fair

SMALL- and medium-sized business owners will benefit from trade fairs, which provide a platform that brings together a diverse audience, including potential customers and international buyers.

“Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) can learn from these buyers because they can give them feedback,” Emerson Q. Labang, supervising trade-industry development specialist at the Trade department’s Bureau of Market Development, Promotions and OTOP, said in an interview.

“It’s a very productive way for our MSMEs to… get that information directly from the buyer and network with private sector partners in terms of enhancing their logistic capabilities, their access to finance, and of course, even improving their products,” he added.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) held its Bagong Pilipinas National Trade Fair last month to help MSMEs showcase their products and services to a larger and more varied audience.

Furniture shop Cura Furn managed to acquire new clients at the event, according to an Aug. 27 post on its Facebook page.

“Our expectations were already overly satisfied by the fourth day, when on the fifth day, just a few hours towards closing, the big-ticket items supposedly only for display, were sold — tables, chairs, plus pillows,” Giuliana B. Anastacio, owner and creative head of the Cavite-based business, said in the same post.

Other DTI-organized events this year included a beauty fair, which was also held in August. A National Arts and Crafts Fair, with the help of the Office of Senator Lorna B. Legarda, and a one-town, one product (OTOP) food fair are in the pipeline for October.

Entrepreneurs can join future DTI fairs through their local office, Mr. Labang said.

“We send out invitations to [our regional and provincial offices] and then give our terms and conditions,” he said. “Then we evaluate the [businesses’] product samples and their capacity to produce, so that just in case they meet institutional buyers, they would be able to supply these buyers’ demands.”

Exhibitors should be ready to answer inquiries, he added.

The events are a culmination of what services the DTI can offer MSMEs, Mr. Labang said. Through these, he said, “we hope that our MSMEs can feature their best products.” — P.B. Mirasol