MANDAUE CITY, Cebu — Notwithstanding talks of recovery amongst the major world economies, including the United States, a sector in the export industry here sees the anticipated upturn as unable to meet its expectations.

“The economic rebound in the US market did not bring us what we expected to a positive impact in our sector,” Jennifer Cruz, past President and member of the Gifts, Toys and Housewares-Cebu (GTH-Cebu) Board of Directors. “Yes, there might have been (US economic recovery) but it was not as fast as we hoped to be.”

Cruz told reporters in an interview last Tuesday that the recovering market, especially the US, where the bulk of industry buyers are based, has only brought on a slow movement in the volume of orders last year. In all, he said, there has been a drop of about 10 to 15 percent drop of orders from the 2005 level.

This year’s recovery, he said, does not approximate the robustness of the economic situation before the 1997 Asian crisis when the global market had been fast to respond after the regional economic began to perk up.

“Foreign buyers now are careful not to order in huge quantities. When they buy new products, they initially order in small quantities and it is only if the product sells well in the market that they subsequently order in bigger amounts, although we have to ship all these orders within 30 to 60 days, and no longer the 120 days grace period,” he explained.

Currently, only about 20 percent of orders from the sector are new products and designs while 80 percent are old ones or designs that have been tried and tested in the market.

Cruz, who owns 33 Point 3 Exports Inc., one of the largest home furnishing exports manufacturing companies in Cebu, said that because of stiff competition from China and India, Cebu exporters are now becoming more efficient and driven to improve the quality of their products despite the small-lead time given them by buyers.