DTI opened speed-marketing novel at Sandugo Trade Expo

Tagbilaran City, Bohol, July 21 (PIA) -- SEVENTEEN suppliers speed marketed their products to 12 buyers, mostly tourism providers here in a market matching activity held at the mezzanine of the Prawn Farm and Grill at Island City Mall June 21 in time for the 2011 Sandugo Regional Trade Expo.

Speed marketing, a novel marketing initiative of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to directly market–link crafts, processed food and fresh produce suppliers to resorts, hotels, restaurants and groceries providing tourism services in Tagbilaran and anywhere else in Bohol, the project concept paper reads.

“The basic idea is to give local suppliers and producers, who are mostly farmers, a venue to market link their products to prospective buyers from the tourism sector,” explains Blair Panong, trade and industry development specialist explains. 

Buyers are assigned tables while suppliers are given 10 minutes to talk and introduce their products to the buyers. Here, within the allotted time, they discuss their requirements to suppliers, order volume, product specifications, delivery schedules, payment terms and other business concerns, he added amid a buzz of informal presentations in tables not far from the event secretariat.

“After ten minutes, a bell signals the suppliers to move clockwise to present their products to the next buyer, until all have talked and presented their products,” according to DTI Bohol’s Marisol Balistoy.

The DTI organized marketing activity is one of the sideline events of the 2011 Sandugo Trade Expo, also unveiling at the Block of the ICM.

Along with market matching activity, also presented during the four-day trade expo are fora on corporate social responsibility, Green Growth Awareness and a Small Medium Enterprise Summit highlighted by Trade and Industry Secretary Gregory Domingo.

The trade expo, which highlights greening business and winning markets, “opened up countless opportunities for local producers a new promising market for their fresh produce and organically grown products,” says a supplier member of the Bohol initiators of Sustainable Agricultural Development (BISAD).

The source was presenting organic rice in bulk, organic vegetables and corn coffee to tourism industry suppliers during the marketing event.

Local products market-linked include processed food in banana chips, corn coffee, local chocolates (tableya), assorted organically grown vegetables, pork chicharon, organic rice, rice of the japonica variety, ginger tea (salabat), coconut vinegar, dried and pureed mangoes, souvenir items, soap and liniments and raffia place mats and rolls. (Rey Anthony Chiu)