Sixty-two-year-old Vicente Cometa of San Antonio, Quezon is proud of his farming roots. At the young age of 12, Cometa was already working in the fields, helping his father till the land.
After trying his luck overseas, working as assistant cook in Taiwan for two years, Cometa decided to go back not only to his roots but also armed with a mission to help retired farmers earn and be productive even during their sunset years.
He started the ball rolling by planting cacao in a 3-hectare land leased to him by a businessman living overseas. To enhance his knowledge on farming and cacao planting, Cometa approached the regional offices of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Science and Technology for technical assistance. His vision is to develop high-quality cacao-based products, such as tablea and chomeric (a combination of cacao and turmeric). To have a stronger voice, he established the San Antonio Cacao Growers Association. “We initially had six members when we started in 2015. Now we have grown to 100 members,” Cometa said.
The regional office of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) also gave him coconut and cacao seeds. Moreover, the Region 4A office of DA provided the cacao farmers with an office they can use for business transactions. Cometa said the DOST responded to their request when it gave them a processing machine for their cacao products. This means they can now make the cacao tablea and the chomeric product finer and tastier. “We want the products to be perfect as much as possible,” he said.
Cometa said the association is currently looking for a bigger vehicle to enable them to bring more products to the market.
He said that he initially encountered a big challenge in establishing the association because the farmers had a bad experience when they earlier joined a cooperative. It turned out that the cooperative was mismanaged, and the officials suddenly disappeared, bringing with them the membership fees of about P30,000.
He said the regional office the Department of Agriculture gave them the needed boost when they helped Cometa and the farmers sell their products at Waltermart malls. For Cometa, he was given a slot in Waltermart Makati. He said Waltermart Makati is a good site as they have managed to develop a niche customer base. Moreover, it is part of Waltermart’s corporate social responsibility program to help Filipino farmers and MSMEs to sell their produce.
Cometa said the association members are grateful to the management of Waltermart for giving micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) like them the opportunity to sell their products in their stores. This helped them expand their market for their products.
Cometa, who has been the president of the association since 2015, got the nod of the municipal agricultural officer to support the farmers by helping them sell their products.
The association, according to Cometa, hopes to acquire a medium-sized all-purpose utility vehicle to enable them to bring more products to the market.
“My wife and I are doing our best to help the retired farmers that still want to be productive in their twilight years. We are also active in organizing the women in the community to pursue economic activities and help them become productive,” he said.
Since they are directly sourced from the farm, the products of San Antonio Growers Association are guaranteed fresh. Among their best-selling products are the cacao tablea, chomeric (a combination of cacao and tumeric), camote, potatoes and ginger.
Aside from running the affairs of the association, Cometa also buys some of the produce of the members. “Right now, I am still recovering my investment in this business,” he pointed out.
From Mondays to Thursdays, the Cometas are busy processing cacao and buying the produce of the members that they will resell to the markets in Makati and the Calabarzon. “We hope that this opportunity to sell our produce here in Makati will attract the big buyers,” he said.
The Cometa couple has established a loyal following from many shoppers in nearby areas. The buyers, including this writer, agreed that the products sold by the Cometa couple are of good quality. For people who want to avoid sugar but still crave for dessert, there is the cacao tablea that can also be served as a beverage. The vegetables they sell are fresh as they are all newly harvested from the farm.
“I am happy for the positive response of our customers here in Waltermart Makati. We hope to reach out to more markets in Metro Manila to benefit our members and help them earn more,” Cometa said.