Quezon local producers to scale up exportable products to Canada

LUCENA CITY, Quezon – The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Quezon provincial office said Monday that it has assisted and encouraged the local producers here to scale up their exportable products through attractive packaging, labeling and branding under the “One Town, One Product Next Generation” program.

In a report from the DTI provincial office here, Julieta L. Tadiosa, DTI-Quezon provincial director officer-in-charge said they are encouraging the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) here, especially those with available land to engage in the production of makapuno, ube, cacao production, bamboo production, food products and other stuffs that were assessed to have export prospects especially in Canada.

The DTI office also stands ready to assist them in the registration of their food products with the Food and Drug Administration (FAD) and Intellectual Property Office (IPO) to protect the products image.

Tadiosa said the local products were given boost following the visit by the Canadian trade and business delegation last month where a business-to-business meeting and forums were held to further promote the marketable and exportable consumer items.

According to the DTI provincial office, Senior Trade Commissioner Maria Roseni M. Alvero of the Philippine Consulate-General in Toronto, Canada who led the trade delegation, has visited the AM Stature Miki Factory in mid-February to assess its suitability to export market, particularly supplying Canada with the Philippine products.

Alvero accompanied eight members of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce-Toronto, Canada to the trade mission to Quezon so they can explore and extend assistance in the form of investment, financing, and market for the Philippine products.

The Philippine Trade Commissioner was with DTI-Calabarzon Regional Director Marilou Q. Toledo and Tadiosa in a factory visit to the AM Stature food processing facility owned by Leonor M. Canlas, who was part of the Trade and Investment Outbound Mission to Canada organized by DTI-Calabarzon in November last year.

From the exchange visits, the Canadian chamber members were impressed with the products of Quezon, although they assessed that a lot has to be done like making sure the products will be sustained.

Alvero said products once introduced into the Canadian market have to be sustained because a cut in the supply would encounter difficulty for them to be re-introduced into the market.

She proposed to help on the re-branding aspect so that the Philippine products would get the attention of consumers after members of the Canadian trade delegation described the products as “very saleable.”

This prompted DTI-Quezon to meet a highly-select MSMEs in preparation for the exchange visits of trade and business delegations and their initial business contacts because financing maybe provided to those qualified MSMEs and their trade fair participation in Canada.

Marketing  of Quezon's locally-made products will be tested in Canada during the trade fairs especially because these products are hardly known yet by the native Canadians.

But the trade commissioner said that the Philippine-made products would ensure patronage by the more than 700,000 migrant Filipinos in Canada.

To assist the local small enterprises in the Calabarzon area, a volunteer marketing adviser John Connolly has made the initial assessment and encouraged some enterprises to join the Trade Mission and Fairs especially Canlas and Alabat Mayor Fernando L. Mesa whose “makapuno” island town has shown export potentials of the makapuno products. (Gideon Belen/PNA)