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Managed
by the husband-and-wife team of Isagani and Leticia
Belarmino, Lety’s Buko Pie is a story of entrepreneurial
grit, focus and innovation.
The
university town of Los Baños in Laguna is home to Lety’s
Buko Pie, the leading brand in a crowded industry all
claiming to be “original.”
In 1967,
Lety’s started to produce the inimitable buko (young
coconut)-based pastry at four pieces daily. Production
has since grown to an average of 4,000 pies weekly.
The
family-run food maker shifted to high gear following
technology assistance from the Department of Science and
Technology (DOST) that complemented its aggressive
marketing approach.
DOST’s
package of assistance set off a system and product
transformation for Lety’s, including appropriate
packaging and label design; adoption of blast freezing
technology that makes the product stable up to 12
months; compliance to food quality and safety standards;
and productivity enhancement, among others.
Lety’s
perseverance earned for the 68-year-old entrepreneur a
rush of recognition, such as the 2005 Outstanding
Citizen of Los Baños Award for Entrepreneurship; the
2006 Gawad Saka Award, HVCC Processor Category (Regional
Level Award Southern Tagalog); and the 2006 Product
Processor Innovator Award (National Level),
Coconut-Baked Products (Buko Pie) from the Philippine
Coconut Authority.
Lety’s
success including forays into the export market somehow
put a pressure on the competition to raise their
standards as well.
****
JOSE C.
BITUIN, sits as president of Betis Crafts Inc. (BCI),
the renowned family-owned furniture manufacturer of
barangay San Miguel, Betis, Guagua, Pampanga, that has
set the benchmark in fine hand-carved, solid-wood
furniture and accessories like reproduction chairs,
tables, mirrors, consoles, bedroom pieces and case
goods.
BCI has
a strong following in the local market, and also exports
its products primarily to the US, Middle East, Australia
and Europe.
Wood
quality became a significant concern when BCI went into
the export market in the late ’70s.
The
Department of Science and Technology (DOST) through the
Forest Products Research and Development Institute (FPRDI)
provided BCI with a package of assistance to put up its
first kiln dryer to meet the moisture-content
requirement of the export market. FPRDI also assisted in
the installation of several finishing spray booths,
acquisition of centralized dust collection system, and
carried out wood processing trainings for BCI workers.
BCI’s
kiln dryer ensured standard and consistent
moisture-content levels that gained the confidence of
foreign buyers.
The firm
started as JB Woodcraft in 1978, and has spawned several
spin offs with BCI as the mother company with 600
employees.
In 1988,
it received the Golden Shell Award for Export for its
“exemplary performance in the promotion of
nontraditional Philippine products as a shining example
of what the Filipino can do to advance the future of the
country.”
It is
also the “Best Employer: Techno Center Locator Parangal
ng Pangkabuhayan 2005” given by the Technology and
Livelihood Resource Center, and one of the recipients of
“Outstanding Entrepreneurs in 2007” by Go Negosyo
(Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship).
****
Dr. Jose
Ildefonso Costales Jr. owns the successful Palaisdaan
Natin in barangay Salvador, Santiago City in Isabela.
This surgeon from San Mariano, Isabela, is a recognized
authority in aquaculture in Cagayan Valley.
It
probably helped that he has a BS in Medicine and a
Masters in Hospital Administration degrees from the
University of the Philippines. His three-hectare fish
farm produces eight million fingerlings annually,
translated to P4.2 million in sales and P3.3 million in
income.
Dr.
Costales’s success started in 2000 from the tilapia
grow-out production module of the Consultancy for
Agricultural Productivity Enhancement Program (Cape) of
the Technology Application and Promotion Institute (Tapi),
an agency of the Department of Science and Technology.
Through
Cape, Dr. Costales developed a 3,000-square meter
fishpond and received technical assistance on how to
manage and operate it. He later converted the remaining
area of his farm into a grow-out pond for tilapia
production.
Two
years later, he qualified for upgrading into hatchery
operation under the Tapi-DOST Venture Financing Program
for the project called “Technology Module on Intensive
Fingerlings Production for tilapia.” This is backed by a
P421,880 soft loan repaid from 2005 to 2007.
The
interventions resulted in the expansion of his
production area from 0.3-hectare grow-out pond to 3
hectares for tilapia grow-out and hatchery, particularly
the production of Sex-Reversed Tilapia (SRT) fingerlings
based on the technology developed by Dr. Rafael Guerrero
III of DOST’s Philippine Council for Aquaculture and
Marine Research and Development. An innovation in SRT
was introduced with the use of incubator to enhance
sex-reversal efficiency.
Dr.
Costales is currently one of the most recognized and
endorsed SRT producers in the Cagayan Valley Region. He
is recipient of the Department of Agriculture’s Gawad
Saka Award at the provincial, regional and national
levels.
(To be
continued) |
