CABARROGUIS, Quirino (PIA) -- The participation of Quirino entrepreneurs in the 2024 Ambiente Fair in Messe, Frankfurt Germany last month has opened investment and foreign trade opportunities to the province’s homegrown crafts.

Export traders from the province of Quirino were among the 30 exhibitors featured in the Design Philippines Pavilion mounted by the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM) at the 2024 Ambiente.  

Mary Ann Corpuz Dy, provincial director of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), said three foreign investors placed orders for fossilized flowers and wooden products during the fair. 

She said some investors signified interest in the corn-based baskets, wooden leaf trays, fossilized murals, and embroidered table napkins and runners.

“The chief executive officer and President of Second Nature Design, a Canadian-based retail distributor ordered fossilized flowers, corn-husk natural flowers, and twigs with a minimum initial order of 20,000 pieces for each item valued at US$21,000. There is also a sustained order of the same quantity every three months thereafter,” Corpuz Dy announced. 

Foreign nationals visit the Philippine Pavilion during the 2024 Ambiente Fair in Messe, Frankfurt, Germany.

(Photo courtesy of DTRI Region 2)

Dy also said a Dutch-based perfume company, Vergran Group carrying the Scent Chips brand, offered a partnership agreement for the supply of fossilized flowers to complement their existing perfume product lines with a minimum order of 20,000 fossilized bud flowers valued at $10,000, and a sustained order of the same volume every month thereafter. 

“Design Atelier, a French firm that is engaged in the manufacture, importation, and distribution of toys using different materials, bought all our samples of wooden puppets and driftwood lamps. They also expressed keen interest in placing volume orders in the future,” Dy further said.

The DTI provincial director has expressed hope that more foreign buyers will invest in Quirino’s crafts as business queries on corn-based baskets, wooden leaf trays, fossilized murals, and embroidered table napkins and runners were posted by trade agents from Germany, the US, India, and China.

Meanwhile, the entrepreneur who joined the fair generated 1,500 Euros as over-the-counter sales for onsite products. Onsite sales include wooden toys, lamps, tables, wooden leaf trays, natural leaves and grasses, bamboo baskets, and kitchen decors. (OTB/TCB/PIA-2, QUIRINO)