ZAMBOANGA CITY – The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) on Tuesday hailed the 2018 Zamboanga Peninsula Exposition (ZAMPEX) as a big success as it recorded PHP25.4 million in sales, twice higher since its inception in 2014.
Dr. Sitti Amina Jain, DTI-9 director, said this year’s ZAMPEX held from October 8 to 11 was participated in by 102 exhibitors, with 93 from Zamboanga Peninsula, while the remaining nine are from Davao City, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), notably, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, and from ASEAN-member country, Indonesia.
Grouped according to province or city, Jain said the exhibitors from this city generated the highest sales at PHP10.4 million representing 41 percent of the total sales of ZAMPEX 2018.
Second is Zamboanga del Norte with PHP7.2 million and third, and Zamboanga del Sur with PHP6.47 million.
The products sold were categorized into two – food and non-food products, with higher sales generated by non-food products, totaling to PHP15.041 million, while food products generated PHP10.391 million- in sales.
The PHP25.4 million sales surpassed by PHP10 million this year’s ZAMPEX target of PHP15 million in sales convincing Jain that “it is ripe to go out of the region and bring the fair to a bigger, more mainstream market.”
“It’s high time for our local products to conquer bigger markets. Next year, we will be bringing ZAMPEX to Manila. After this success, we need to buckle down in preparation for next year. It’s much challenging to bring this to Manila but we are very confident it will be worth the challenges to bring our best products to Manila,” Jain said.
She said the first edition of ZAMPEX in 2014 has generated total sales of PHP10.7 million, which was eclipsed in 2015 with PHP12.5 million. In 2016, the sales dipped to PHP11.46 million, but improved to PHP11.9 million in 2017.
Held every October, ZAMPEX is an annual activity of DTI-9 in line with the Zamboanga Hermosa Festival. It is one of the biggest marketing platforms for micro, small, and medium entrepreneurs (MSMEs) in the region.
ZAMPEX aims to promote locally-made products of MSMEs in the region, create or reinforce visibility and raise the awareness and interest on their products, and establish linkages between producers and buyers and establish partnerships among distributors and suppliers through business matching. (Teofilo Garcia, Jr/PNA)
