DAVAO CITY — Subanon Dumang Makers (SDM), a Davao Oriental cooperative that manufactures and distributes chili powder, is trying to get halal certification in order to tap the Singapore and Brunei markets.
Edgardo Ricky T. Arisola, president of SDM, told BusinessWorld that the group’s contacts in both countries each asked for 1,000 kilograms (kg) of dried and powdered chili. However, SDM must first meet the minimum quality requirements in order to penetrate those markets.
For example, Mr. Arisola said, the mom-and-pop method of processing dumang — the term for the native chili variety grown in Davao Oriental — will have to be discarded in favor of a sterilized plant with a production line. It doesn’t help that half of the building that SDM used as a makeshift factory was blown away by Typhoon Pablo last December.
“We have asked the local DoST (Department of Science and Technology) office for assistance so we can build the new plant,” Mr. Arisola said.
By his own estimates, SDM needs to raise about a quarter of a million pesos to meet all the requirements to secure the halal certificate.
“What’s good, however, is that our Singapore contact has committed to help us get the certificate,” Mr. Arisola said, though declining to reveal the name of the contact companies in Brunei and Singapore.
He said that SDM aims to finish the plant this year with a mixture of internal funds and loans.
The cooperative, which has around 400 members, has managed to survive considering that 98% of its chili hills were destroyed by the typhoon.
As a consolidator, SDM buys fresh chili from farmers at P65/kg. Prior to the typhoon, the cooperative had already been building momentum, purchasing as 20 kg of fresh chili per day, from an average of 8 kg/day between 2005 and 2009.
In the aftermath of the typhoon, Mr. Arisola said, SDM lost about 12,000 kgs of fresh chili about to be harvested.
SDM sells both dried and powdered chili under the Dumang brand name. It sells powered chili at P500/kg.
The cooperative is already supplying a Davao-based chicharon maker and a host of vinegar manufacturers with chili powder. Mr. Arisola said that SDM has also received inquiries from two fast food chains for a possible monthly supply of 1,000 kg of dried chili.
The SDM president said that the cooperative is still trying to persuade farmers to not to rely too much on coconut, a major crop of the province, for income. According to him, they can plant chili between the coconut trees and possibly earn P52,000 for each hectare per harvest cycle.
This advice was heeded by Junel T. Batao, Cateel Coco Planters Association president, who has been evangelizing about the chili’s potential income among his association’s 300 member farmers.
“One thing that made me hesitate before was where to sell our produce if we’re going to plant chili,” Mr. Batao said.
“But, the SDM market model was very solid,” he said, adding that unlike coconut, he and his farmer neighbors would not have to wait too long between harvests in order to earn from their chili plants. — Joel B. Escovilla
*This article was published by Business World Online. Read the original article here.
