NOTE: THIS STORY WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE BOHOL CHRONICLE’S SUNDAY PRINT EDITION.
The DTI Region 7 Central Visayas held its first virtual Sandugo Trade Expo last July 20-24, 2020 during the launch of the PASINAYA, a One Town One Product (OTOP) Digital Market Showroom and Online Trade Platform organized by DTI Philippines.
Pasinaya, which literally means debut, is the kickoff for the “new normal” trade fairs and the launch of the online OTOP PH Stores in the website otopstores.ph and the OTOP app.
The event ran for the entire week during the nationwide celebration of the MSME Week. Sixteen regional trade fairs were simultaneously joining the PASINAYA, including Region 7’s Sandugo Trade Expo, Region VIIs longest running marketing event. Now on its 33rd year, the virtual Sandugo Trade Expohas only twenty-five MSME participants from Central Visayas,six of which are from the Province of Bohol.
With about 320 OTOP regional exhibitors and over five hundred products to choose from, buyers can easily meet, source and connect with suppliers right through their computers and mobile devices, where they had the opportunity to shop for products from around the country ranging from processed food, health and wellness, wearables and homestyle.
As of Thursday, a total of 101 buyers have visited the Sandugo Trade Expo, which generated total sales of P9.04-M for 25 exhibitors. Tubigon Loomweavers MPC was the region’s top seller with P8.87-M in cash and booked orders.
The trade show platform is 100% powered by Zoom with breakout rooms for B2B discussions or networking meetings with buyers and sellers. -(KACalumba –DTI Bohol)