Baragatan Trade Fair 2009

The Trade Fair in Puerto Princesa held during the Baragatan Festival last June 15-23, had a wide display of produce and products that are endemic and/or predominantly found in the respective municipalities of Palawan. Mostly are produced by their local residents, cooperatives or private sector groups.

From food products such as cashew nuts, banana, jackfruit, rice, fish products to ‘banig’, pillow cases, bags, and household ornaments, are only some of the products being sold in the trade fair. Each booth signifies the richness and creativity of the municipality and cooperation of its people to promote unity and livelihood.

Tourism is also one of their main goals as they introduce the beauty, serenity and culture of their municipality.

 Weaving Business

As we go around the trade fair, we were introduced to Ms. Eva Tingbangkaya Valledor. A civil engineer graduate that used to work in DTI as the trade and industry development specialist, but decided to resign back in January 2002 to start teaching mothers, non-working women and student to weave.

Placemats and table runners are two of their best sellers. The project then grew from 15 workers to 140 weavers, wherein 90% of the workers are college students.

Materials used in her products are endemic in Palawan. She constantly make new designs and create new ideas to upgrade her products and to give buyers more choices. From bags, to bookmarks, memo pad holder, wallets and other household displays.

“All my employees should be able to have the interest, the patience and perseverance to do the job” cited Eva, as she added, “Weaving is a skill, if you don’t have it in your heart, you cannot force it”. The qualifications every weaver under her possesses.

Eva has helped a number of students graduate due to this project. She lends them tuition money and let them pay up little by little as they work for the company. Every year, Eva was able to help at least 10 students graduate under her care.  

To date, Eva is using at least 17 materials, all indigenous and endemic in Palawan, such as Amumuting, ginit ng nyog, ubas ng saging, buntal fibers, pikog, grasses, buri stick, talahib to name a few.

Eva accepts bulk orders and specialty products or designs depending on your needs. Contact her for your inquiries and orders, CLICK HERE.

Invest in Palawan

Palawan is consists of 1,700++ islands and the potential for any business establishment, especially tourism related isunlimited. But keep in mind that though the province supports development, it still has to be environmentally friendly, based on the Republic Act 7611 which is only applicable in Palawan.

Power supply is available in the mainland. But for the islands, investors should be able to provide their own environmentally friendly power generating source such as solar power.

“There are a lot of destinations in the country right now for potential investments. We are now positioning Palawan not only to compete in our own country, but to compete globally. Invest now while it’s still affordable to invest.” Cited Governor Joel T. Reyes.

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