Christmas Décor Market
Let’s admit it: part of the magic of christmas is its visual element. While carols, gifts, food and the whole merry-making shebang complete the Holiday revelries, it still wouldn’t feel like christmas without the lanterns, belens, dolled-up trees, wreaths, angels Santa claus, etc. They all add up to the fabulous glitz and overall mood of the whole Christmas atmosphere. All over the world, Christmas is supposed to be an overwhelming eye-candy aud a breathtaking visual feast. This is what makes the global Christmas decor business a billion-dollar industry.
ln 1996, a DBP study reported that the Philippine christmas decor market earned a whooping US$120 M in export revenues. In 2002, however, the figures dwindled to US$72 M, primarily because of the recent Asian financial crisis. This has led to a host of other problems like rising production costs and a volatile currency exchange. Filipino decor exporters, the report added, continue to remain undaunted. Despite China’s dominating presence in the world market, buyers all over the world are still in love with the creativity, craftsmanship and novelty of Philippine Christmas decors.
We recently visited some malls in the Metro and saw for ourselves why discriminating foreign buyers say nobody understands Christmas better than the Filipinos. As these pictures will reveal, exporters and manufacturers of Philippine Christmas decors continue to upgrade designs through more elaborate handcrafted techniques, material innovation and heavy use of our rich indigenous raw materials like sinamay, rattan and abaca. True, the global Christmas decor market is highly competitive but our local designers are giving it a good fight.
Source: MARID, Dec 2009