DITF draws good crowds

A large number of people thronged the venue of Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF) 2018 on Friday, the first weekly holiday of this year, to check out a wide range of products including home appliances, food items, crockery, furniture and clothing.
Expecting that the volume of sales this year will surpass the previous one, fair insiders said visitors have just started coming to the DITF and sales of different products will increase gradually in the coming days.
During visit to the fair, a huge number of visitors were seen busy checking and buying their necessary products.
Customers crowded the stalls that are mainly selling products for children and household items, considering price competitiveness.
However, sales at foreign stalls are yet to get momentum as the prices of their most products are high, according to visitors.
Different companies at their stalls and pavilions have placed array of offers and discounts for the customers while visitors are mostly doing window shopping as the fair has just began.
Al-Razi Hossain, who came to the fair with his newborn baby and wife, told the FE, "We live in Shewrapara close to the fair venue. We are just wandering around different stalls on the fair premises to see what products are new this year."
They will be visiting the fair to get last-hour discounts, he added.
Mustafa Zaman, a salesman of Akhtar Furniture, said they are offering 12 per cent discount on their each product this year.
Another furniture company, Delta Interiors, is offering coupons to the customers on Tk 5,000 sales of different home decors and furniture. Customers will get chance to win Thailand-Dhaka-Thailand air ticket on coupon draw. Local food-processing giant, PRAN Foods Ltd, has set up several pavilions under different brand names to display a wide variety of their products.
PRAN-RFL Group has several other pavilions under RFL, Vision Electrics and Italiano melamine.
"I purchased some toys for my children and household items," Mrs Fahima, a resident of Mirpur Pallabi area, told the FE at the fair venue.
Apart from local companies, a total of 17 foreign countries are also participating in the fair.
The Export Promotion Bureau, which is under the Ministry of Commerce, has been holding the fair since 1995 with a view to promoting quality exportable items being produced by people in the rural areas of the country as they don't have financial strength to participate in the international fair abroad. This annual fair gives them an opportunity to display their products to foreign buyers.
Last year, the DITF received export orders totaling Tk 800 million. EPB and fair insiders have expected that the figure may rise to around Tk 900 million this year.

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