Exporters happy with P45.50: $1 exchange rate, says Ortiz-Luis
Ma. Elisa P. Osorio
Philippine Star
Exporters said they are happy with the 45.50 to $1 exchange rate saying that this will help them regain losses they incurred last year.
“The 45.50 to a dollar is just about okay for us. What we don’t want is a fluctuation. We want it to remain steady,” Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr., president of the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc (Philexport) said in an interview.
Ortiz-Luis said the exporters have already adjusted to the current exchange rate.
“The strong peso has killed a number of exporters, they have already closed. We are not happy about that. We have suffered for a year and a half,” he lamented.
Ortiz-Luis said 75 firms have already closed because of the mounting pressure.
Over 10,000 jobs have been lost due to plant closures. There could be more,” Ortiz-Luis said.
Philexport reported that a large food processing company in a town in Misamis Oriental had recently shut down its facilities and paid the separation pay of its 2,000 employees due to heavy losses after the strong peso made pricing uncompetitive.
The plant uses coconut as its main raw material and was the biggest employer in that Misamis Oriental town.
A Pampanga-based furniture exporter has reported that it has closed four of its five factories and has retrenched 2,500 workers due to the rising peso.
Another big company that processes and exports mangoes in Davao City reported it laid off 550 workers as of the end of last year for the same reason.
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