Quality Ilonggo bamboo products on 7-day display

by T. Villavert

Iloilo City (6 October) — A showcase of the best and newest items and designs of bamboo furniture and furnishings kicked-off yesterday in Iloilo City as the Department of Trade and Industry and Iloilo’s prominent bamboo manufacturers and exporters conduct a seven-day exhibit dubbed Kawayan Market Week.

DTI-Iloilo Director Wilhelm Malones said in a PIA interview that Iloilo is home to hundreds of small, medium and large manufacturers and exporters and our bamboo industry has contributed to the government’s job generation program.

Malones said the seven-day economic and trade fair currently being held at the SM City Mandurriao activity center is participated in by 20 members of the Iloilo Bamboo Producers Development, Inc. with the theme “Bamboo for the Millennium”.

He explained that the event advocates the use of bamboo as raw material- alternative for wood, and bamboo plants are good in preventing soil erosion.

The Kawayan Market Week has helped open Iloilo bamboo to the outside world, and “we are considered by other regions in the counry as the center of the bamboo industry”.

Meanwhile, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in one of her visits in various areas in the country urged to plant bamboos in riverbanks to help mitigate the effects of climate change and serve as a source of livelihood.

The President said the bamboo contributes both for environmental improvement and socio-economic growth. (PIA6)