Robert Young (trustee of Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. textile, yarn and material sector) said that Konoike Group via Kenichi Yamada Nichiun deputy manager, had indicated the order to Robert Young during the Philippine-Japan Business Matching event, which took place on the sidelines the Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s official working trip to Tokyo, Japan.
“They are having a contract with a shirt brand company called Flex Japan Inc. They are now ordering from the Philippines men’s dress shirts. They will buy the fabric, they will ship it to us, and then we will stitch it and ship it to Japan,” said Young, also president of the Foreign Buyers Association of the Philippines.
He said the Japanese firm wants the Philippines to ship nine 20-foot containers, with each container loading 5,000 pieces of men’s dress shirts, for 12 months.
“The order has still to be confirmed through the approval of the final sample. Now, we are working on the sample. (We will start shipping) as soon as the sample is approved,” he added.
Young stated that he has been in discussions with three factories in Bataan and Batangas about the possibility of meeting the security order for the Konoike Group.
“They (Konoike) are convinced that Philippine garment workmanship, particularly men’s dress shirts, has been proven to be good quality and approved worldwide,” he said. “And they are hoping that this will continue—the breakthrough in the Philippine-Japan garment trade relations.”
Young stated that more buyers from abroad are likely to source garments and textiles to the Philippines, provided they are sold at lower prices than their competitors.
He suggested measures to reduce the cost of clothing and textiles in the nation.
“We have to rush the other forms of energy such as solar, wind and all these kinds of renewable energy, thereby lowering the electricity cost,” he said, adding that power costs comprise five to 10 percent of a firm’s total production costs depending on the product.
Young believes that upskilling is essential for industry professionals.
“Because right now, our laborers are already behind on this modern and automated way of manufacturing so we have to have some upskilling program. We were speaking again about robotics, but it is too far away for the Philippines. However, at some point, we need to be semi-automated. Foreign buyers will demand a quicker production time, or lead time, if they are arriving. We might not get the orders if we will be dictating again the usual lead time that we require which is 60 days,” he added. / (PHILEXPORT NEWS & FEATURES).