Giving Gapan's tsinelas industry a shot in the strap

By Armand Galang
Central Luzon Desk

GAPAN CITY—A source of livelihood for some 15,000 people, footwear production in this Nueva Ecija city is a struggling industry that needs a stronger push, local officials concede.

“There’s no doubt our slippers here are creatively crafted, ones you can find in both modern and traditional designs,” says Leocadio Reyes, president of the City of Gapan Footwear Multipurpose Cooperative.

Reyes says footwear production has been in Gapan for as long as anyone can remember but government intervention, which gave the industry the needed push, only came in 2000.

Main livelihood
Mayor Christian Tinio says at least three Gapan villages—San Lorenzo, Marilou and Pambuan—have tsinelas (slippers) as their main source of livelihood. At least P200 million roll in this business annually, he says.

Saying demand for Gapan City-made footwear continue to grow, with orders coming from big shopping mall chains such as SM and Gaisano, Tinio says the market should level up to “repeat orders.”

“And that is now the bigger challenge to our producers here ... The quality of our products has to be upgraded and be attuned to the times, especially with the influx of products from China,” he says.

Brigida Pili, provincial director of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), says footwear production was identified by the agency as this city’s One Town One Product (OTOP). This means that the industry should be the focus of national and local government agencies and private groups in livelihood programs, she says.

Technology transfer 
Pili says OTOP identification entails support of technology transfer and provisions of financing facilities, packaging and marketing.

Besides DTI and the local government, the Department of Agriculture and the office of the provincial agriculturist are also part of the support system for industry players.

Reyes says government intervention has forced them to depart from the traditional branding of their products as “Made in Marikina” or other places known in the footwear industry.

“Bago dumating ang suporta ng gobyerno sa pagtsitsinelas, may mga umoorder at kung saan gustong sabihin na doon gawa, yun ang ginagawa ng iba (Before government support came, there were people who would place bulk orders and ask local workers to make it appear that the products came from a place specified by the customer. Some footwear makers here did that),” he says.

Technology transfer 
Reyes says the city council earlier passed an ordinance that obliged producers to put the brand “Gapan” in their products. While most of them were initially reluctant, they were later surprised that buyers liked the branding.

Reyes says most of the raw materials they use, particularly synthetic leather, are imported from China. “We need a bigger capital but we manage to earn a little,” he says.

Tinio says apart from upgrading quality control mechanism, the city government also monitors the welfare of industry stakeholders, including the youth in production areas.

“We do not allow children to be exposed in dangerous areas of production,” he says.

Published in Philippine Daily Inquirer September 4, 2010.

Link: http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/sim/sim/view/20100904-290498/Putting-the-Spring-Back-in-Marikinas-Step

In Pangasinan, small town develops welders’ market

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 19:33:00 07/31/2010

ALCALA, Pangasinan – This central Pangasinan town is producing as many welders as it can to wipe out unemployment by filling up a new overseas demand for the trade.

“We have trained around 500 welders, most of whom have found employment abroad, in shipping yards in the country, in construction companies, or have put up their own welding shops,” Mayor Manuel Collado says.

The project started two years ago, supposedly for tricycle drivers whose numbers have shot up. Turning them into welders was meant to reduce the number of tricycle drivers in the town.

Unfortunately, most of the drivers who enrolled in the welding class dropped out, “so we just opened the training to anybody who was interested,” Collado says.

The project was launched in cooperation with the Luciano Millan Memorial School College of Arts and Trades in Asingan town, which provided the instructors; and the Department of Labor and Employment, which provided the welding equipment.

“Many jobless residents who trained have found employment, [to the consternation of] their drinking buddies, who wondered why they were no longer around [for beers] anymore. When their friends learned about the training, they also enrolled in the training class,” Collado says.

But it is not only the jobless residents who benefit from the training. There are professionals who shift careers, such as a retired military colonel who underwent training and found employment in Australia.

Yolanda Sotelo, Inquirer Northern Luzon

Grow exotic seafood, poor fisherfolk told

By Vicente Labro
Philippine Daily Inquirer

FISHERIES OFFIcials have an advice to poor fishing families in Eastern Visayas as a way of improving their lives: Grow blue crab, abalone, seaweed, milkfish and other exotic seafood.

A livelihood program of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) is encouraging the fishermen to raise these marine creatures for extra income and food on their dining tables.

Seaweed seedlings cultured at the Guiuan Marine Fisheries Development Center (GMFDC) in Guiuan, Eastern Samar, about 150 kilometers from Tacloban City in Leyte, have been distributed to program beneficiaries.

The BFAR also gave away plastic buoys, straws and other materials needed to operate a seaweed farm last year. As a payback scheme, the agency requires the sea farmers to return the materials.

“Priority was given to seaweed farmers because of their experience,” said Juan Albaladejo III, fisheries regional director.

Seaweed laboratory

Extracts from certain seaweeds are used as stabilizers, gelling agents or emulsifiers in producing pet food, dental moulds, cloth dyes, toothpaste, salad dressings, flavored milk, cosmetics, welding rods and pizza toppings.

According to Albaladejo, the BFAR central office released some P4 million late last year for the establishment of a regional laboratory for seaweeds.

“I will put up more shelves so more of these quality (seaweed) seedlings could be given to farmers,” the official said.

The BFAR is also pushing for the commercialization of abalone and blue crabs following research studies conducted at the Guiuan fisheries center.

Abalone (Haliotis asinina) and blue crab (Portunus pelagicus) are among the top commercially important seafood found in the fishing grounds in Eastern Visayas. Their population, however, has declined drastically due to over-fishing and destruction of habitat, Albaladejo said.

He estimated that blue crabs would be nearing extinction after about five years in an area.

High prices

While the crustaceans are still seen in public markets, abalone is not so common. Both marine products command high prices maybe because of their scarcity or their being sought-after by gourmet cooks.

Cultured abalone has more meat than shell, Albaladejo said.

In a study undertaken last year, scientists found that growing abalone and blue crabs in bamboo or plastic cages was feasible and economically viable, and recommended that local farmers raise them, he said.

For the first time in the country, blue crabs will be cultured, he said.

The BFAR is looking for more fishing families interested in growing milkfish (bangus). It will sell fingerlings to them at a very cheap price, unlike before when these were bought in Iloilo and other faraway places.

“We will also be adopting the roll-over scheme,” Albaladejo said.

The GMFDC earlier conducted studies on the growing of bangus, groupers, tilapia, tuna and other fishes.

With ‘danggit,’ a town gets acquainted with wealth

By Juan Escandor Jr.
Inquirer Southern Luzon

PRIETO DIAZ, Sorsogon – Commonly known as “rabbit fish” because its mouth resembles that of a rabbit, danggit has provided a new livelihood opportunity to a people’s organization here whose dried fish production and sales have expanded threefold since they started two years ago.

Ordinarily steep in price, danggit produced by the Seamancor Ecodevelopers Inc. (Seamancor) sells for P100 per 200-gram pack, or around 100 pieces of the bite-size dried fish fillet.

Organized in 1994 by the Sorsogon provincial office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) as part of a coastal environment program, Seamancor presently has 105 members from the coastal villages of Prieto Diaz.

Joselito Domdom, Seamancor chairman, said he and the members have implemented a number of livelihood projects before, but the processing of dried danggit proved to be the most promising.

Domdom said the DENR helped them with different livelihood activities, including goat raising, nipa plantation, crab culture, seaweed farming and swine dispersal – all of which did not succeed.

These, however, did not deter them from venturing into other projects, which they continued up to the present, such as trading of National Food Authority’s subsidized rice, catering services, mangrove propagules production and danggit processing.

“Danggit processing became our most viable venture, with regular orders coming from different places,” Domdom said.

Abundant

He said the processing job came about after the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) conducted a livelihood training for a multisectoral group two years ago.

“We were not part of the training, but our organization provided the catering. I got interested in the subject so I joined the training on its second day wherein I learned the techniques of processing,” Domdom said.

He tried the small-scale processing of some 40 kilos of danggit in 2007 and was able to achieve a satisfactory return of investment.

“With the abundance of danggit in our seas here, I am sure the opportunity to expand ... would always be there,” he said.

Danggit (Siganus Sp.), which is called toros here, is endemic and abounds in seagrass beds around the coast that stretches from Prieto Diaz to the towns of Gubat, Barcelona, Bulusan and Sta. Magdalena.

Melchor B. Deramas, chief of extension and training of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, said danggit could also be found near the vicinity of Bacon and Sorsogon City in Sorsogon province, and in the towns of Bacacay and Rapu-Rapu and San Miguel Island in Albay.

Deramas said the wide tidal flats of Prieto Diaz where seagrass beds grew in abundance were ideal habitats of danggit.

18 workers

He said danggit, which has a compact meat with fine scales and leathery skin, feeds on algae, seaweeds and eel grass.

The danggit processing venture of Seamancor currently employs 18 workers who work for two days, processing the raw materials until the next batch of order arrives.

Workers receive a daily pay of P125 with free meals. They come from the ranks of farmers and fishermen who make up 90 percent of the town’s labor force.

They produce a kilo of dried danggit from five kilos of fresh supplies provided by fisherfolk in the local market.

Domdom observed that the supply of danggit peaks a week before the new moon.

Early on, Seamancor coordinated with the DTI to improve systems and techniques for production and marketing processes.

The next thing he knew, Domdom said they were being subsidized by the DTI and participating in a trade fair held at the Megamall under the agency’s “One Town, One Product” program.

“Our product sold briskly, which encouraged us to improve more on our quality and packaging with help from the DTI,” he said.

While training in Cebu, he discovered that the processed danggit being sold there was boneless, so he tried to adopt the same when he returned to his hometown.

Hot item

In 2008, Seamancor started producing boneless danggit, which became a hot item at a trade fair in Manila. Over 100 kilos were sold on the second day of the five-day event.

The same happened in 2009, and the producers were able to sell all their dried danggit a day before the trade fair ended.

Domdom figured that demand for their product would continue to increase as several interested distributors from as far as Manila called to place orders even after Christmas.

“It’s a nice ‘pasalubong’ that will cost you a hundred [pesos]. Easy on the pocket too,” he said.

According to Domdom, Seamancor is now producing up to 150 kilos of dried danggit a month to satisfy demand of government and private employees and small product distributors in Sorsogon and Legazpi City.

He said they practiced strict quality control, which includes selecting the most fresh raw materials, and protecting the product from maggot infestation during the drying process.

Domdom said he was able to address the problem in drying processed danggit during rainy days.

Right now, the group is asking help from the Department of Agriculture in obtaining a mechanical dryer.

Small businesses seen selling more on the Web

Filipino buyers get access to products abroad

By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines – The growth in the number of Internet users is seen to drive smaller business towards selling online.

Online services portal 88DB.com sees growth among businesses in different regions doing “business-to-consumer” transactions.

In the Philippines, many Internet users are starting to purchase items online through various online vendors. However, some items can be found in online auction sites.

Racquel Cagurangan, 88DB.com country general manager, said economic times are pushing regional businesses to use the Internet to sell their products, instead of the traditional distribution system, which would cost higher logistically.

And advantage in direct selling is that buyers can select specific products of interest and order them from just about anywhere. Sellers also save by reducing the cost carried by having a local sales office.

It’s effective to sell online because they would know in what areas their products are in-demand. They can also reach consumers that would normally be unreachable by traditional distribution channels.

“You have to remember that Filipinos would still buy local products but they don’t know where to find them. Having an online portal will give consumers a place to check out products that they might want to have,” Cagurangan said.

Cagurangan also said some business firms in the Philippines will continue to expand their business abroad using the Internet, which will also save them from spending more on logistical evaluation of potential markets.

The continued expansion of telecommunications services, as well as partnerships with credit card and bank services for online services will also drive Philippine businesses to use the Internet for various transactions.

Filling a hole in coffee shop business

By Gigie A. Agtay

EVEN as a seven-year-old child, Gladys Lalaine G. Marcial, now 28, was a budding entrepreneur, selling candies to drivers working for her grandfather's trucking firm.

Being the only girl in a family of five siblings, Gel would play "tinda-tindahan" alone inside her room. The dresser would serve as her store counter. She would position herself in front of the mirror and assume that her reflection on the mirror is the customer.

She had long asked for a cash register toy from her parents, but the latter couldn't find one for their unica hija. So she used the dresser's drawer to keep her play money.

Her business sense prompted her to take a financial management course at the Colegio de San Benildo in Cagayan de Oro. Immediately after her graduation in 2002, she moved back to Davao City to work at her lolo's trucking firm and at the same time managed a water-refilling station. The line of business didn't fascinate her much though.

While fixing her cabinet to get rid of old clothes, she stumbled upon the idea of selling the second-hand clothes to earn extra money.

"Nakita ko closet ko na masyado ng maraming gamit. Naisip ko na pwede ko pagkakitaan. Instead of buying things for myself. Bumili ako ng pangbenta," she narrated.

Her entrepreneurial ambitions got the best of her, and eventually landed her a marketing career by selling boutique items from RTWs (ready to wears) to bags, shoes, and ladies accessories. She joined bazaars during Kadayawan, Araw ng Dabaw, Christmas and the like at Davcon, Matina Town Square and Damosa Gateway.

She pioneered the distribution of popular Crocs brand footwear in Davao.

She discovered customers' interest in clothes and accessories and this sparked her curiosity. In 2005, Gel opened Clothes Bar in Juna Subdivision.

"It was financially rewarding. Enough to pay the rent of boutique and house, at mapakain apat na brothers ko, makapagtravel, at ma afford na hindi mag-work for one month,” she said.

Though not so tech-savvy, Gel took advantage of opportunities by bringing Clothes Bar to the doorsteps of online clients.

But then again the self-starting side of Gel dreamed of bigger things.

While manning her booth at the 1st Food Exhibit at Central Bank in 2007, she stumbled upon a new business idea -- food and beverage.

"Nagtatiangge ako noon sa central bank, nakita ako ng lola ko na nagsusukat ng shoes para sa ibang tao. My lola told my lolo na 'yung apo mo nagtatiangge'. My lolo asked my lola to tell me na pumili daw ako kahit ano business at siya ang magpi-finance," Gel said. "Nung time na yun I wanted a mall-based boutique. My lolo was not amenable to it and suggested that I diversify into food and beverage retailing. Akala ko biro-biro lang. My lolo bought me an espresso machine worth P240,000," she said.

With her newly delivered espresso machine at her boutique, Gel made her own coffee menu and coffee shop concept, which she formulated from the internet and friends' suggestions.

"I even set up an online show on Blog TV to elicit suggestions and feedback. My audience was from different places,” she said.

She attended trainings on coffee concoctions. Her first coffee customers at the boutique cum snack bar were her Lola Lydia Guilles, friends and several curious foreigners who drop by to check out her goods.

Gel then found a new business -- a coffee shop gifted by her lolo, Gregorio "Totoy" Guilles.

With plenty of ideas on how to start up and grow her business, Gel established Tata Benito’s (named after her great grandfather) A Whole Latte Love at World Palace in November 2007.

Business wasn’t good enough though because of its not so strategic location. Gel decided to transfer the coffee shop and bring her products to more potential customers.

In December 2008, she opened Tata Benito’s at the Paseo de Legaspi on Legaspi Street which also houses Clothes Bar at the second floor.

For Gel, most start-ups just don't take off. However, this eventuality shouldn't be confused with failure. She gained a new raft of experiences and learned valuable lessons for future enterprising. Her aunt, Dr. Lucy Guilles, franchised Tata Benito’s and opened a branch near Conpinco in Bajada.

Just five months after opening Tata Benito’s Rizal branch, Gel expanded her coffee shop business to the Robinson’s Cybergate along J. P. Laurel Avenue. She admitted it was an aggressive move but she said that getting Robinsons Land’s approval of her lease application only proves that Tata Benito’s has been slowly making a name in the local coffee shop industry.

“We see to it that everything is personalized from menu to services. Every client who comes to the coffee shop ay parang bisita sa bahay,” she said.

Slowly, Gel believes, customers have taken notice that Tata Benito’s is filling a hole in the market with quality product, offering about 40 coffee concoctions.

“We roast our own coffee. Every cup of coffee served came from coffee beans roasted by my lolo, not by charcoal but through pressurized method,” Gel said, adding that Tata Benito’s has its own commissary that bakes its own bread and pastries.

Success doesn’t come easy though. “Madali man ang operation pero ang problema ay ang tao. Mas maraming needs ang employees kesa sa shop. Kung kaya ko ibigay, ibibigay ko… just like how you treat a family member,” she said.

Young entrepreneurs like Gel can always use their youth to their advantage by introducing something new and creative into the market. She laments though that a downside of starting young in any business is you don’t get to enjoy your youth.

"Gusto mo mag-explore ng ibang field or mag travel but you're stuck with the business. Hindi din pwede iwanan ng matagal ang business because it would be just like leaving your baby to a yaya. Halos hindi ako makatulog," Gel added.

With her passion as a driving force, Gel hopes to establish a solid hold.

Such that when people hear the name coffee, one of the things that would come to mind is Tata Benito's. Establishing Tata Benito's name, she added, comes with an unending pursuit of ways to surprise its clients.

In the event business doesn't take off soon, she said it helps to be patient. Just don't end up pulling out of it; look back on what you've learned and consider what you plan to do next time -- wiser and ready to deal with new challenges.

"There's always another opportunity; dust yourself off and keep on going. You haven't failed but you've progressed."