Garments exports seen growing by 30% in 2014

Exports of garments and other hard goods—including handicrafts, furniture and home accessories— are seen to grow by 30 percent to $500 million next year due to the resurgence in demand for these products from the United States, Europe and certain Asian countries, according to the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc.

In a statement, Philexport quoted Robert Young, president of the Foreign Buyers Association of the Philippines (Fobap), as saying that this projection was even deemed modest considering recent developments that favored the local export industry. These include the rising cost in China and the suspension of certain trade benefits given by the United States to Bangladesh.

The inquiries that local exporters are getting now are indicative of the prospective increase in business next year, Young said.

Li & Fung Philippines, a member of global supply chain manager Li & Fung Group and the biggest member of Fobap in terms of volume, expects to corner more than half of the projected $500 million export revenue next year, according to Philexport.

Berd Alba, company vice president for operations support group, said export sales of garments were expected to account for 85 percent of the expected $260 million revenue, while the remaining 15 percent will come from hard goods such as handicrafts, furniture and home accessories.

Fobap earlier called for a P5-million funding from the government to support three projects deemed crucial in reviving the local garments and hard goods industries. These projects are industry mapping for garments and hardgoods sectors, the compliance program and the “invite the CEO (chief executive officer)” project.

Young earlier said the implementation of these projects would allow the local garments sector to regain at least a fourth of all the jobs lost and recover lost revenues.

“We lost about 300,000 to 500,000 jobs in the past six to seven years in the garments sector alone. We just hope to get back one-fourth of that maybe 150,000 to 200,000 jobs. Employment generation is what we need in our country,” Young said.