Cotabato City entrepreneurs join Gensan trade fair

GEN. SANTOS CITY-- Indigenous products from Cotabato City were showcased in the November 13-15 regional trade fair here which the Department of Trade and Industry Organized.Carlito Nunez, officer-in-charge of the DTI’s office in Cotabato City, told Oblate Media on Tuesday that five local entities participated in the Treasures of Region 12” trade fair at the SM Mall in Gen. Santos City.The Cotabato City participants - the Cotabato Brassware Association, Rio Grande Pusaw Handicraft Association, COZ Craft Collection, Gallano Handicrafts, Muslim Chamber Pasalubong Center, Kalanganan Fishpond Owners and Workers Multi-purpose Cooperative - displayed products from the city in separate booths at the trade fair venue.The term pusaw” means water hyacinth in the Maguindanaon dialect.There is abundance of water hyacinths in nearby rivers and swamps that connect to the vast 220,000 hectare Liguasan Delta at the borders of Maguindanao, North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat provinces.The products from the city displayed at the trade fair were comprised of bags fashioned from water hyacinth stalks, assorted brassware, home decors, hand woven inaul cloth and smoked milkfish (bangus) and fresh crabs and shrimps.Cotabato City is known for its tasty crabs and shrimps, with distinctive tastes and meat density owing to the brackish nature of water in seaside ponds.Fishponds in the city are filled with a combination of saline-rich seawater from its coasts and freshwater from the upper delta of Central Mindanao.The Cotabato City exhibitors had sold considerable volume of the merchandise they displayed at the fair, according to Nunez.Two of the entrepreneur groups, the brassware producers and the manufacturers of the water hyacinth bags and home decors, are beneficiaries of the DTI’s Shared Service Facilities (SSF) program.The SSF extends technical and equipment support to recipient organizations as an empowerment intervention to boost productivity of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in selected towns and cities.