Market linkage

TRIBES FORGE MARKET DEAL

FOR ORGANIC UBE, CAMOTE

By Manny Piñol

Tupi, South Cotabato – Members of the tribal communities in Central Mindanao have entered into a marketing deal with a Bulacan-based organic food processing company for the supply of organic purple Ube and Camote.

Leaders of the Manobo and B’laan Tribes who live in the mountains of Central Mindanao came down on Monday to meet with young businesswoman Almay Gaw-See, owner of Oh, So Healthy! Foods to enter into a supply agreement which would earn the tribes an estimated P300,000 every month.

The meeting was arranged by the Department of Agriculture’s Indigenous People’s Office now headed by Camilo Andi Jr., an information technology college dean who I personally recruited to implement programs for the country’s neglected tribal people.

The market linkage started when I met Almay Gaw-See during the International Food Expo (IFEX) event last month at the World Trade Center in Manila.

She had a booth which displayed fruit and rootcrop chips which she produced organically and were packaged beautifully which caught my attention.

During my conversation with her, she confided that one of her problems was where to get her supply of organically grown purple Ube and Camote.

She said she needed an initial supply of 10 metric tons every month and that she was buying the crops at P35 per kilo.

Immediately, I directed Jun Andi to reach out to the different tribes in Central Mindanao where purple Ube and Camote are grown by the Indigenous People.

When the availability of the supply was validated, the Tribal Leaders were asked to meet with Almay Gaw-See on Monday in time with my visit to the Tupi, South Cotabato agriculture station for the distribution of farm machinery and equipment.

The deal was sealed with a handshake.

The Tribal Leaders went home hopeful of a better life and said they will start digging for the Ube and the Camote in their ancestral lands.

The Department of Agriculture will also help them plant more Ube and Camote.

Almay Gaw-See, on the other hand, went back to Manila happy with the thought that she will now have a steady supply of the purple Ube and Camote and she could expand her market.

As Agriculture Secretary, I was also happy to have forged the deal between the previously neglected people and an enterprising young businesswoman.

#Changeishere!

#CaringForTheTribes!

(Photos by Alan Jay Jacalan, DA-AFID)