Organizers of this year’s “One-Town One-Product (OTOP) Mindanao Island Fair” said they are targeting to generate more than P27-million from the four-day event that will be held in this city on October.

The annual Mindanao-wide trade fair is now on its fourth year in showcasing southern Philippines’ best products to include coconut, rubber, seaweed, vegetables and fruits, and marine-based products.

“Being an agriculture-based island, we hope to further improve both our farmers and the processors during the event by linking them with potential buyers and giving them new technologies to enhance their products,” Hermie B. Cuevas, regional Trade office’s chief for industry and investment, which is the lead agency in organizing the affair.

Mindanao’s economy has been purely dependent on agri-based products, generating billions of revenues both from domestic and export sales annually. In addition, the discovery of large deposits of minerals and metals in various parts of Mindanao is seen to boost its contribution to the country’s overall economy.

Cuevas said there is a need for Mindanao based processors and manufacturers to aggressively promote its products amid the challenge of global economic downturn that has already affected the operations of some major industries in Mindanao.

She said the event, which will be held at Garden Orchid Hotel, was programmed to serve as a venue where Mindanao’s small and medium-sized enterprises, which composed largely the island’s business operators, could exchange and share information, and be introduced with new technologies that are practical, cost-efficient, and environmentally-safe.

The event is also aimed at in increasing entrepreneurship in the resource-rich Mindanao, which majority of its 10.20-million hectares has yet to be developed, according to the Mindanao Economic and Development Council.

Organizers said that the event’s product coverage will include fresh and processed food, home decors and accents, jewelry and fashion accessories, fashion accessories, furniture and furnishings, raw materials components, organic and natural products, arts and crafts, holiday and Christmas decors.

“We have prepared at least 100 booths for processed-product displays, while the Department of Agriculture is setting up its own booths for its raw-material products,” Ms. Cuevas said.

In addition, Mindanao’s Halal products will also take center-stage during the affairs. The government has earlier tagged southern Philippines, which a fraction of its population are Muslim inhabitants, to be country’s major source of halal products.

The event will take place simultaneously with the Mindanao-wide Investment Forum, which is being organized by the private sector Mindanao Business Council.

“Delegates of the forum will be among our potential buyers during the event,” Cuevas said, adding that among the invited investors and buyers are the Foreign Buyers Association of the Philippines, Philippine Chamber of Handicraft Inc., Cebu Furniture Industries, Inc., Philippine Retailer Association, Philippine Association of Supermarkets, Direct Selling Association of the Philippines, and Chamber of Furniture Industries, Phils.

Since the Mindanao’s OTOP fairs had started in 2006, the event has generated billions of sales and bookings.

OTOP Philippines is a government program that supports micro, small and medium enterprises to manufacture, offer, and market distinctive products or services through the use of indigenous raw materials and local skills and talents.

The initiative started in the country in 2004 following the success of the One Village One Product movement pioneered by former Oita Governor Morihiko Hiramatsu in Japan. The program highlights the key concepts of regional pride, rediscovery of indigenous products, entrepreneurship, and public-private partnership, a research study entitled “Sustainable Local Development through One Town One Product (OTOP): The Case of Mindanao, Philippines,” said.