Reg’l trade fair highlights west Visayas heritage products

FILE: Diosdado Cadena Jr. (Photo: Department of Trade and Industry – Iloilo/Facebook)

ILOILO CITY — This year’s week-long regional trade fair of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has showcased heritage products of Western Visayas.

The event gathered close to 100 exhibitors from the six provinces of Western Visayas, bringing with them “heritage items,” according to DTI provincial director Diosdado Cadena Jr. during Monday afternoon’s opening program at the SM City activity center here.

“It emphasized on heritage products, traditional products, traditional industries or traditional economic activities that contributed and continue to contribute to our economic development,” he said of the event dubbed as “Panublion.”

In an interview, Cadena added that while the products speak of the heritage of each province there are also innovations that respond to the market.

He likewise underscored the need to “look at existing resources” as they would also become heritage products in the future.

He said they decided to bring back to Iloilo the regional trade fair, which was used to be held in a mall in Makati.

However, aside from being too expensive, the exhibit only occupied a small space hence, it made “no impact.”

When in Iloilo, he said Ilonggos would be able to appreciate the products especially now that Iloilo and the region had “developed and grew tremendously.”

“There is a lot of money coming in to Iloilo and there’s a lot of money with the region. That is affirmed by the presence of big names in infrastructure,” he said.

The trade fair that runs from November 13 to 19 will also have a high-end fashion show using traditionally produced hablons (hand-woven textiles) in the region on Saturday.

Cadena said they hope to generate some PHP10 million sales from the event.