THE Buy Sabah Made Products Campaign - an initiative by the State Government through the Industrial Development Ministry (MID) that was organised in Ranau, recently – was a success and proven to be a crucial platform for local entrepreneurs who produce local products. They urged such programmes to be organised more frequently.
Barbara Bongkok, one of the sellers of local products in the district, said it was a very good programme because it gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to expand the market and at the same time increase their revenue.
Barbara is the owner and seller of Kopi Apai Ranau products which features a variety of Arabica coffee with various mixtures and flavours where the raw materials are obtained from around the Ranau highlands.
She said it also becomes a platform for all local product operators to meet and get to know each other.
Another seller, Norhayati Othman hopes for more programmes like this as it gives her the opportunity to meet customers directly and explain about her products.
She said those buying local Sabahan products not only support entrepreneurs like her but also give benefits to local farmers who plant all kinds of herbs, vegetables, fruits and the likes, which become the raw materials for products sold by local sellers.
Norhayati, who sells therapeutic products through the brand D’Laris Enterprise and provides services like mobile spa therapy, traditional cupping, pregnancy therapy and prenatal or postnatal care said the programme was also a platform where she can also show and encourage the visitors to support local products.
A local entrepreneur, Jusnah Jinos who specialised in handicraft weaving techniques such as bead chains, baskets and sculptures mostly made from clay beads and Dalai plants that are cultivated locally in Ranau said the campaign gives extra boost to local handicraft makers like her.
Nevertheless, she said the timeline of the campaign was very short, which is for a day only and the window of opportunity is quite small for the local sellers to really highlight their specialities and to reach out to more people.
“Having said that, the initiative was very good as a start. We could understand because furthermore, we are still in the pandemic period and need to limit huge gatherings in order to prevent clusters from emerging.
“But after this, we hope when the pandemic is already under control, such a programme could be organised for a longer period like several days and more frequent so that more sellers could participate and more potential buyers could come,” said Jusnah.
Meanwhile, another local product producer, Izlani Ikmal Jalanis, who does laser cut and engraving using local wood and bamboo, said the campaign is timely because the main challenges for him are the marketing aspect.
“We hope such a campaign can open our opportunity to a wider market and give us the chance we were looking for so that we could expand our network and so do our businesses,” he said.
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