The best coffee now comes in an instant pack

By Tina Arceo-Dumlao
Philippine Daily Inquirer

LIPA, Batangas— After serving the Philippine Air Force for 25 years—which meant several brushes with certain death— Alexander Ilagan certainly deserved to sit back and just relax upon his early retirement at 43 years old.

But being idle did not suit the retired sergeant and intelligence officer well. He was just too used to putting in an honest day’s work.

So instead of just lazing about and living on his government pension, Ilagan finally did what he had always wanted to do, which was to put up his own business. And not just any business, but one that involved his beloved Batangas brewed coffee.

“The best coffee still comes from Batangas,” Ilagan declares in Tagalog.

It can be difficult, however, to prepare Batangas coffee the right and the traditional way. You have to boil the water just right, for instance, to bring out the full flavor of Batangas’ Barako beans.

Ilagan says the process could indeed be quite tedious, which is why most settle for instant three-in-one coffee in sachets or coffee from vending machines, thus missing out on the full-bodied flavor of a piping hot cup of Batangas coffee.

Ilagan, who is justifiably proud of his province’s coffee, then asked himself how he could make it easier for most Filipinos to have their fix of Batangas style of coffee.

He pondered over this question during his last 10 years of service in the military and his big break came one fateful day when the serious coffee drinker found himself drinking herbal tea that promised him good health.

“I realized it was so easy to drink the tea because you just put the bag in hot water. Then I said to myself, this is the solution to the problem! I should also put coffee in a bag,” says Ilagan, who drinks about eight cups a day of Barako coffee.

To actually do so, however, is much more complicated than just putting ground coffee in tea bags, as Ilagan found out to his chagrin after going full time into his fledgling business.

“First, I had to find the right kind of bags for the coffee, then I had to find a way to properly seal the bags because they burned easily. Then, the most difficult part of all was to come up with the right mix of ground coffee to make sure I can provide that unique Batangas taste,” says Ilagan, who credits his wife, Merlita and their three children for inspiring him to pursue his passion.

Ilagan, now 58, would shut himself in a room and come up with his own concoctions during his early days as an entrepreneur, guided only by his instincts and taste for Batangas coffee that he has been drinking for as long as he can remember.

“I would experiment with different types and mixtures. Sometimes, I would find myself waking up in the middle of the night to try a new combination. I had to go through a lot of trial and error,” says Ilagan, who admits that there were many challenges along the way that almost made him quit.

Even his family had their doubts about the future of his business. After all, the idea of putting coffee grounds in a teabag had not been tested in Batangas. His unshakeable belief in his idea, however, pushed him to carry on.

When Ilagan came up with the combinations that passed his own taste, he had the older folk of Lipa—who certainly knew their coffee—taste them.

The mixture that got the most votes eventually became the basis for Xandro’s Food Repacking, which came into being in his backyard in Villa Monica Subdivision, Lipa City Batangas in 2005.

“I just had two people when I started. I did almost everything and sold the coffee myself, bringing them to bank employees and doctors, encouraging them to give the coffee a try,” Ilagan says, “Because they liked the taste, the orders started coming in.”

Thus, from producing just a few bags of coffee three days a month, Xandro’s now produces 100 boxes or 1,000 bags of coffee a day.

Xandro’s—which comes in Original 2 in 1 (coffee and sugar) Puro (no sugar) and Premium (with muscovado or raw sugar)—are distributed in different outlets such as Hotel Pontefino in Batangas, Rowena’s in Tagaytay City and the showrooms of the Departments of Trade and Industry and Agriculture.

His own children are his best sales and marketing people, bringing boxes of coffee for sale in their offices in Manila. Their collective effort, he says, has allowed them to earn a good profit and save enough to buy a commercial vehicle and improve their home.

Ilagan has even been recognized by the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship, through its Go Negosyo campaign, as one of the most notable entrepreneurs in Batangas and one of the country’s most inspiring microentrepreneurs.

“The award really surprised me. I did not expect that I would be recognized along with other people who had so much bigger enterprises than mine,” says Ilagan, whose trophy from Go Negosyo occupies a special place in his home, inspiring him to do even more.

Ilagan says he was happy that after four years, Xandro’s is now making an impact on the country’s growing coffee market, if only for the fact that the additional demand gives the Batangas farmers more reason to plant coffee again instead of other crops such as rice and sugar.

Ilagan goes around the coffee farms in Batangas himself and buys the best cherries from the farmers at a price higher than that offered by most traders. And he tells them he would buy more so they should produce more.

“I really want to help the farmers because we should not lose our tradition with coffee. There is still nothing like coffee from Batangas,” says Ilagan.

As for competition, Ilagan says copycats have already sprouted since they could also see the potential of brewed coffee in tea bags.

But he remains unfazed.

“They could all copy my idea, but I can guarantee that it will not taste the same,” says Ilagan with a grin, “If they could answer why I use three different grinders to prepare my coffee, then I’ll start getting concerned.”

‘Organiculture’ inventor makes world market for his products

By Anselmo Roque
Philippine Daily Inquirer

SCIENCE CITY OF MUÑOZ—Thirty years ago, multi-awarded inventor Eliseo Ruiz presented with enthusiasm his “Organiculture” invention to government officials, hoping to contribute to the campaign to restore rice lands. All he got from them were endorsements for organic farming. Ruiz says his pitch elicited no real initiatives from the government.

But his “Organiculture”—a bioactivator used in making organic fertilizer—is now marketed in Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, and the Middle East and will soon be in the United States, India, Brunei, Mexico, Canada and Africa.

An “organiculture” production plant in the People’s Republic of China (PROC), which is being put up in collaboration with a Chinese businessman and a provincial government, will operate this year.

Ruiz holds a Ph.D. in Food Engineering at the University of Missouri, and was president of the Central Luzon State University (CLSU) before he accepted the presidency of the CLSU Alumni Foundation.

Ruiz says he was still studying in the 70s when he began culturing micro-organisms that can help convert waste materials into organic fertilizer.

In the 1980s, he perfected his “bio-plus activator,” which generates organic fertilizers.

“I am using only 0.4 percent of this activator and 99.6 percent of waste materials to produce organic fertilizer,” says Ruiz, a former Ten Outstanding Young Men and two-time presidential awardee.

He described the fertilizer as a result of “an accelerated decomposition of biodegradable materials, both of plant and animal origins, through an advanced bio-fermentation process involving more than 20 naturally-occurring beneficial organisms.”

“To enhance its efficacy as a fertilizer, chelated trace elements, enzymes, growth promotants and other functional compounds are added to fortify the mixture,” Ruiz adds.

He established a production plant and office in Barangay Bagong Sikat here for the production of the bio-plus activator and his own brand of organic fertilizers in solid and liquid forms.

“The rice land has become acidic due to continuous use of chemical fertilizers and other inputs. The beneficial micro-organisms that help in decomposing biodegradable materials are not there anymore,” he says.

The use of his organic fertilizer for complementation and supplementation to a few bags of chemical fertilizer help restores the good state of the soil.

“In due time balanced nutrition in the soil can be attained and the use of chemical inputs can be greatly minimized if not done away with,” he says.

“The expenses can be reduced and higher yield can be expected,” Ruiz says.

Ruiz’ plant and office is managed by a company manned by his family and some in-laws, which produces 250,000 to 300,000 bags of organic fertilizer each year that are shipped abroad. Each bag weights 50 kilograms.

His franchisees, located in Tarlac, Pampanga, Benguet, Ilocos Norte, Batangas, Bulacan, Mindoro Occidental, Davao, and Agusan del Norte produce about the same number of bags a year.

“It’s a P100-million business now and it is helping a lot of people,” Ruiz says.

He says the company employs about 100 workers who earn from P500 to P600 a day.

The bulk of the materials used are sugar mill wastes, sawdust and animals waste for the organic fertilizer.

“I started marketing my activator in Malaysia 10 years ago. Then I expanded in other countries,” Ruiz says.

Ruiz says he is currently exporting two container vans filled with his bio-plus activator every month. The importers then use the activator for the production of their own brand of organic fertilizer.

Ruiz says he is proud that his partners in the PROC is manufacturing his bio-plus activator this year at Da Qing City in Heilonggian province.

Once the plant starts operating, organic fertilizers would be used to regreen several hundred-thousand hectares of barren land in that area.

Ruiz says his invention had been effective in propagating trees and crops in the area’s most arid landscape.

“My happiness is that my invention is helping mankind in many parts of the globe. Above all, it is a source of pride that I, a Filipino, is recognized as the inventor of that product in many countries,” he says.

In Pangasinan, there’s now a town of milk and money

By Yolanda Sotelo
Inquirer Northern Luzon

LAOAC, Pangasinan – Three tall structures at a Maraboc village farm here always catch the attention of motorists.

These are newly constructed silos where cattle feed, mostly corn, are stored.

Around the towering structures are corrals where 360 cows imported from New Zealand have been temporarily herded.

The compound seems out-of-place on this flat palay plain, but a Pangasinan congressman said it proclaimed that this sleepy town would soon become the dairy capital of Northern Luzon.

Soon, selected farmers will be getting New Zealand cows, which they will feed and milk until they can produce enough supply to sell to neighboring towns, said Representative Mark Cojuangco.

The proposed dairy trade is a congressional project that will not disrupt the town’s thriving rice and corn production, he said.

Milk may become a secondary trade for farmers still struggling to earn a living.

The project should be able to produce enough milk in two to three months to develop a thriving retail market for farmers, Cojuangco said.

It took the district five years to raise capital.

Cojuangco said: “Every year, I saved some money [from my countryside development fund] and I asked [allocations] also from the senators, which I deposited [in] the National Dairy Authority. We bought land in Laoac where we established the silos.”

The National Dairy Authority is the agency tasked to execute the Laoac dairy program.

Last year, the government tried to jumpstart the program by distributing cattle to farmers as part of an alternative livelihood campaign. But the animals were immediately recalled when 10 cows died.

This time, the government will target rice or corn farmers who are unable to make their fields productive. They will form the first batch of dairy farmers in Laoac, the congressman said.

These farmers would have to suspend corn production and prioritize their cattle in order to make the project work, he said.

The municipal agriculture office of Laoac is currently surveying the town’s farming community to determine who will benefit from the program.

Cojuangco said that under the project, each farmer would be assigned five milking cows, from which he could earn up to P30,000 in monthly profit.

“We want those taking part in the program to focus on dairy production only, nothing else. We observed that when the recipient has other sources of income, the project may fail because he or she is not [devoted to] the project … which is why we are looking for beneficiaries who will commit to dairy production only,” he said.

Under the program, there will be a centralized source of feed which will be stored in the silos. The feed will be composed mainly of corn plant tops collected for free during “tadaw” – the season when farmers harvest corn.

Because the silos are sealed, the chopped corn plants are deprived of oxygen, enabling the stock to last for as long as two years

Cows will never be deprived of food even during the dry months.

“Cows eat a lot – from 40 to 60 kilos a day. So we really need to ensure availability of feeds or they will not produce milk,” Cojuangco said.

The chopped corn stalks are mixed with minerals, protein and vitamins to produce feeds called TMR, or totally mixed ration.

The TMR, which costs P1 a kilo, will be rationed to farmers twice a day.

“We will also collect milk twice a day,” Cojuangco said.

The farmers earn by selling milk to a central sterilization and processing plant at P20 a liter.

Since a cow can produce an average of eight liters of milk a day, farmers may expect up to P800 a day.

The sterilization equipment had already been shipped to Maraboc village, said Philip Villanueva, the dairy project manager.

“We are just waiting for the technical people to commission it,” he said.

For the moment, farmers who avail themselves of the cows may pasteurize the milk manually, purely for household consumption.

If 300 cows produce 10 liters of milk a day, 3,000 liters of fresh milk may be available for the market, Cojuangco said.

The plan is to put up more silos to serve a minimum of 1,000 heads of cow to be dispersed in Pangasinan’s fifth district.

“We hope to get some of the fund for the district. Milk is really nutritious and is much better than rice and noodles,” he said.

The Case for Coffee

 

By Margaux Salcedo
Philippine Daily Inquirer

CITY folk have it so easy. Most everything you’d want to eat can be found at the grocery store or in a restaurant. What we sometimes take for granted is that the process behind the finished product can be rather long and tedious.

Take coffee. When you want coffee, you can easily go to a Starbucks or a Figaro outlet for a cup of your favorite latte, or grab some beans at the grocery store.

But for Robert Francisco, it’s more than just ordering “tall, grande or venti.” When his family decided to go into the business of cafes, he decided to get into the business of roasting. Then from exclusively roasting for the family’s chain of cafes, he expanded his business to supply restaurants, resorts and hotels. In the new millennium, he tied up with Boyd’s coffee and today they make coffee for select clients. (Such snobs, he-he. But I guess since we’ll never taste this select coffee, we’ll never miss it!)

I first heard about Robert Francisco when his cousin Joanna, now a freelance editor/writer, invited me to view his book “A Coffee Journal.” It’s an interesting read as it documents the varieties of Philippine coffee from north to south. He takes it a step further by noting distinguishing attitudes towards coffee.

For example, he shared over a phone interview, in the north they drink only the brewed coffee they produce, never three-in-one; but in the south, all the produce is sold, then they buy three-in-one coffee from the store.

Robert says he tries to help the Philippine coffee industry in his own way. He is currently sourcing beans from Mt. Kitanlad in Cagayan de Oro, flying to and from the province himself. I asked if it would be possible for Philippine coffee such as this to achieve Blue Mountain status (so we can get back at the Japs and charge P1,000 per cup!). Unfortunately, because of the lack of supply of Philippine coffee, what some traders do is get cheap coffee from various sources around the world and sell it as “Philippine coffee.”

“It’s sad more than bad, actually,” lamented Robert. “There is a shortage of 70 million kilos of coffee based on annual consumption of 120 million per year. That is why even if I would like to use only Philippine coffee, I am forced to use coffee from other countries because supply does not meet demand.”

This reflects the sad state of agriculture in the country. Another classic case of having all the natural resources on hand, yet being unable to meet demand (ooh, that rhymes).

I join Robert in his shout out to the government to help our coffee growers. “I can’t win this battle alone. I dream and I have done my share in helping the Philippine coffee industry, but the farmers and the government have to help too.” •

“A Coffee Journal.” Available at Fully Booked. For more info on Boyd’s Coffee, call tel. 746-BOYD, 746-CAFE or log on to www.boydphil.com. Or email bccpi@boydphil.com

DA to give 53 compost facilities to farmers, LGUs

By Vicente Labro

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte, Philippines -- The government is set to distribute 53 composting facilities worth about P18.5 million to farmers’ groups and local governments in Eastern Visayas.

Leo Cañeda, regional executive director of the Department of Agriculture said the distribution of composting facilities would be in line with the nationwide program called Tipid Abono (Save on Fertilizers) Program-Organic Fertilizer Production Project of the DA.

The program aimed to encourage farmers to use organic fertilizer as a sustainable approach to food security, income generation and poverty alleviation, especially in poor regions like Eastern Visayas, Cañeda said Friday.

He said around 120 composting facilities were earmarked for the region, with the initial 53 now ready for distribution and the rest, to be delivered here next year.

Armando Arcamo, regional coordinator of the DA's Bureau of Soils and Water Management, said the 53 composting facilities would be awarded to beneficiaries in the region during the launching of the program on Oct. 30.

He said the beneficiaries were either farmers groups or local government units, with a 100-hectare cluster in their respective areas.

Arcamo explained that some farmers’ groups sought assistance from local government units because they could not put up the counterpart - a building where the composting facilities would be installed.

"Some LGUs became interested in the program because they could use the composting facilities in their solid waste management program," he said in an interview Friday at the sidelines of the Farmers LGU-led Bantay Peste consultative meeting here.

The project beneficiaries are those in areas where the average yield is below the national average of 3.8 metric tons per hectare, according to Arcamo.

Of the initial 53 units, Arcamo said 25 would go to Leyte, eight to Biliran, five to Southern Leyte and the remaining 15 to the three Samar provinces.

The composting facility is composed of a shredder, compost brewer, 15 kilos of African Night Crawler compost worms, and three units of vermi-bed.

The composting facility can produce 800 kilos of shredded materials per hour or 64,000 kilos per day at eight hours of operation, which would make it appropriate for a 100-hectare-cluster, he said.

Each program package, costing P350,000 and composed of the compost facility and a training program, would be given as a grant to beneficiaries, Arcamo said.



    

Cocoa farmers find sweet spot in exports

By Riza T. Olchondra
Philippine Daily Inquirer

SINCE the 17th century, Filipinos have been comforted by treats made from local cocoa – from chocolate de batirol and champorado to chocolate cakes and candies.

Current production is only about 6,000 metric tons (MT) out of the 36,000 MT of cocoa consumed in the country per year, but local producers are on the move to share local cocoa with other markets and carve out a sweet spot in the international market.

“Few people know about it, but we have already started exporting cocoa,” Edward David, president of the Cocoa Foundation of the Philippines (Cocoaphil), told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on the sidelines of the recently-concluded Philippine Cacao Summit.

He said that a small batch (7 MT) of organically grown cocoa and a larger batch of 30 MT were sold separately to global companies just before the summit last month.

“The buyers are clamoring for more. So we are really encouraged to accelerate our efforts to increase production and improve quality control in preparation for large shipments,” David said.

David said Philippine cocoa growers wanted to stop importation, which has become pervasive since the cocoa industry thinned out in the 1990s, when farmers who got parcels of land under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program failed to maintain their cocoa trees.

David believes the country can produce enough to have a surplus starting 2015.

Cocoaphil’s plan is to intercrop at least 50 million cocoa trees with coconut to produce at least 100,000 MT or $300 million worth of export-quality cocoa beans by 2015.

The global demand for cocoa beans grows at about 90,000 MT annually.

David said that the desired output can be attained if more than two million hectares of coconut land are intercropped with cocoa.

Nic Richards of Acdi-Voca, an international economic development organization helping Cocoaphil, said this would position cocoa as one of the country’s top three agricultural sectors.

David said that the cocoa industry could become a top exporter with the help of the local Department of Agriculture (DA) and its American counterpart, the USDA. Both have started talks on new cocoa technologies.

The DA’s Bureau of Agricultural Research, meanwhile, is working to establish at least 50 hectares of cocoa farms in the municipalities of Tiaong, Dolores, San Antonio, and Tagkawayan in Quezon and a two-hectare technology demonstration farm to produce 15,000 quality grafted cocoa seedlings for distribution to farmers.

With these actions, it will only be a matter of time before Philippine cocoa makes it big in the world market.

Milking a grand venture for all its worth

By Linda Bolido
Philippine Daily Inquirer

AFTER making a name in different fields, a group of businessmen have now gotten together to venture into something completely different from what they have been doing for most of their productive lives.

Led by the son and namesake of the late President Ramon Magsaysay, the group set up the Real Fresh Dairy Farms Inc. (RFDFI) in Bay, Laguna, near the Dairy Training Research Institute (DTRI) of the University of the Philippines Los Baños, from which they learned the technology.

The farm makes Holly’s (from Holstein, the breed of the milking cows) Really Farm Fresh dairy products, such as milk, chocolate drink, kesong puti, butter, cream, mozzarella and, occasionally, yogurt.

It has developed a symbiotic relationship with DTRI. The farm uses the technology and draws from the expertise of DTRI people and has its products processed there while students get to do field work in a real working dairy enterprise.

Retirees

Half of the partners are retirees who, like former senator Ramon Magsaysay Jr., are also looking for something new and different. All of them have very little or even no previous experience at all in cattle ranching, much less dairy farming.

The partners – Magsaysay, Danilo Katigbak Dimayuga of Lipa City, Ralph Casino of Iligan City, Felipe Bince of Pangasinan, Jose Eduardo Arroyo of Pampanga, Rey David and Sofronio Larcia – got to know each other through their jobs or businesses or their wives.

For these entrepreneurs, the process of learning a new business venture is as exciting as, probably even more exciting than, the result.

Successful businessmen that they have been and are, they do expect to turn in a profit –eventually. But for this group of intrepid men, the new venture is more than just an exercise to show they still have the savvy and the smarts to succeed. It is also a practical way to promote an advocacy and help people.

Dimayuga, company president, said very few people were venturing into this business so they wanted to encourage and help farmers by introducing them to new technology to reduce reliance on imports.

The National Dairy Authority (NDA) said dairy products were the country’s second largest agricultural import after wheat. Some 99 percent of the country’s dairy requirements came from abroad. In 2007, NDA estimated total domestic dairy requirements to be about 2.635 million metric tons (MMT) and growing at about 2 percent yearly.

Dimayuga said current estimates placed total annual dairy imports at $500 million. Thus, increased local milk production will mean considerable savings in foreign exchange.

And the partners, particularly Magsaysay, would like to see Filipinos, especially the young, develop the habit of drinking milk, not just to reduce import costs but for health reasons. Magsaysay, who said milk helped him survive childhood illnesses, said it should be a basic food for Filipinos being full of nutrients.

Through the dairy farm’s produce, the partners hope more and more Filipinos will taste the true goodness of fresh milk and develop a taste for it.

Inadequate feeding

The need for new and local players in the dairy market is underscored by the NDA that said, “Despite continuing government and industry efforts to increase dairy production, Philippine milk production remains at less than 1 percent of total dairy requirements with import filling most of the supply.”

Data from the NDA showed that the country produced 13,320 metric tons of milk in 2007 but local production accounted for less than 1 percent of the total annual dairy requirement.

Although there had been an increase in the number of dairy animals, the average milking capacity per animal remained low, the NDA said, due mainly to inadequate feeding and poor animal management practices. This is why the introduction of new technology is paramount.

Bold experiment

The Real Fresh group realizes their farm, no matter how big it gets, cannot possibly reach out to everyone. So the bold experiment has other objectives. First, the partners want to demonstrate that good management can make an agricultural enterprise successful. Then, convince people they can make money from dairy farming and encourage small farmers and entrepreneurs to go into the business themselves.

Magsaysay said he and his friends wanted to test their theory that good management and efficient marketing, plus sound agricultural practices – right breed of cow, right feed, dedicated cowhands and farmers, state-of-the-art technology and competent veterinary medical support, with some private capital and assistance from the NDA could make the “learning curve” painless.

“We would like our own workers later on to start their own farms, using the technology and management skills they learn from the [RFDFI], for their own ventures,” Magsaysay said. The individual farmers could then tie up with their former employer in a cooperative or a consortium or whatever arrangement would be most practical and profitable for everyone.

The group also hopes to develop a solid customer base to be viable in three to five years. At the moment, Dimayuga said the company produces about 3,500 liters of raw milk a week, the bulk of which goes into fresh and low-fat milk. They hope to ramp up production to 8,000 liters by the end of the year.