TABUK, Kalinga — A small town entrepreneur here has shown that it doesn’t take much capital to make it good in business.
Kalinga Coffee Cookies, the newest locally processed food product of the province was a nominee in the recent 2011 One Town One Product (OTOP) National Expo Philippines at SM Mega Mall as the province vies for top honors in the presentation of best products among the provinces and regions in the country.
The Kalinga Coffee Cookies is a product of Sally Pepito of Barangay Bantay, here. She produces line of coffee cookies and is now supplying local markets not only in the different parts of the province but also in neighboring provinces of the Cordillera and Cagayan Valley.
Operating a small bakery in their place, Sally had the opportunity to attend a training sponsored by the Rural Micro-entrepreneur Promotion Program (Rumepp) here and was encouraged to expand her line of products from resource-based materials until she was able to produce the Kalinga Cookies which is fast gaining popularity in the different provinces of Northern Luzon.
She sought assistance from the Rumepp based at the provincial office of the Department of Trade and Industry and was taught the technology on coffee cookies baking. Shortly after, she was granted an oven for her coffee cookies under the Rumepp assistance to micro-entrepreneurs and was able to popularize the coffee cookies which are helping her earn substantial livelihood to uplift the living condition of her family.
Under its regular product development program, DTI-Kalinga provided further assistance to Sally to improve packaging of its coffee cookies and opened market opportunities.
Because of her expanding market, Sally is granted P100,000 cash assistance from Rumepp to be released very soon, as build-up capital of her bakery business and that her achievements in the national competition will greatly help the promotion of the coffee cookies in the entire country where the demand is expected to drastically increase.
When the demand for the coffee cookies will increase following its participation to the competition, the producer will surely need more assistance from concerned government agencies and local governments in order to help her increase production that will meet the expected increase in demand.
Coffee Cookies have become a popular product of the province which is now being widely sold outside the province thereby helping families sustain their sources of livelihood.
Native pastries out of powdered roasted coffee, mixed with flour, sugar, butter and other ingredients, Kalinga Coffee Cookies immediately gained its market at the expo Philippines considering that buyers loved the aroma and taste of the native pastry that was displayed for public consumption.
DTI provincial office staff Benita Mangadap, who accompanied the expo exhibitors, said nominees under the most innovative products during fairs and expos are chosen from newest finished product out of existing ones.
Kalinga had coffee, upland Unoy rice and ethnic woven items as its three product entries to the OTOP expo which can compete with the top caliber entries from different provinces in the country. -- MM
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