Sum of Bohol craft, creativity

In Sandugo OTOP Trade Expo

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol (PIA)—The sum of all of government and private sector initiatives to help micro small and medium enterprises (MSME) come out with exciting products and new designs build up for the province’s Sandugo One Town One Product (OTOP) Trade Expo, to take the lower grounds of Island City Mall, this second week of July.

There, the national government, private sector, local government, the academe and even the MSMEs themselves bring out their collaborative designs in products that range from home furnishings, home decors, accessories, wearables, fashion accessories, health and wellness products, manufactured items, novelty products, processed food and local furniture get the spotlight in a 6-day trade expo of the country’s best handcrafted items, reports the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), at the recent Kapihan sa PIA.

Acclaimed as one of the country’s longest running trade fairs, the Sandugo OTOP Trade Expo started as a provincial fair, and yet came out as one of the most successful because t levelled up into a regional fair in 2006, shared DTI Bohol Provincial Director Vierna Teresa C. Ligan, during the livestreamed forum.

Now on its 17th year as a regional trade fair, we continue to do this so that our buyers can see our new products and designs and so that these products by out assisted MSMEs can be exposed in this not just an ordinary fair, adds senior Trade and Industry Development Specialist Rey Anthony Regis.

For the fair, which has mutated into an national products showcase, organizers invite buyers from Manila, Cebu and the local tourism industry like hotels, Mindanao exporters, to prop up the sales of the products from various initiatives helping local MSMEs.

At the DTI, they program regular product development training to update, upgrade, up-cycle and introduce new product designs to make these enticing to the markets, all towards the displays in fairs like Sandugo OTOP trade fair, Manila Fame and the November provincial products under the OTOP.

“We are happy that there are different agencies like the Product Development Design Center of the Philippines (PDDCP), the Provincial Government, who are also helping Bohol manufacturers and craftsmen in developing new designs, all geared towards one goal, the culmination of which is the Sandugo and the Manila Fame,” Ligan remarked.

These include residisenyo, a project with the PDDCP where we send local designers for training, who would be Bohol’s MSME designers’ pool for the product fairs.

We also have a collaboration with Bohol Island State university in product development called PROPEL, for the MSMEs to get new designs from industrial design students immersed in MSMEs to do design and pitch these in class, explains Regis, who has been coordinating the fairs with a local business provider.

These kids develop local designers and help MSMEs to improve their designs and come up with new and exciting products for the fairs, including the Sandugo.

Everything here is built on, “You cant join the trade fair, if you do not have new products, because if the buyers do not see anything new, they wont be back.”

The good thing is that Boholanos love to buy and they buy in cash, so we have exhibitors who are happy and satisfied with their entry into the fair, Ligan boasted.

The more there are interesting products and designs mean more buyers, and more buyers mean more fame to Sandugo and the local industries, which stir the local economy and attain for the government its goals of making productive communities that thrive. (PIABohol)

PREPPING FOR THE BEST OF BOHOL. DTI Bohol, which coordinates the conduct of the Sandugo OTOP Trade Fair and Expo this July announce the entry of over 100 exhibitors a from as far as Luzon to Mindanao sidling to be in one of the country’s most successful trade fairs.