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Sunday, February 19, 2006
Fruit wine production in Mt. Province boosted
BONTOC, Mountain Province - With fruit wine production emerging as a promising enterprise here, the regional Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) granted a P1 million working capital to the Mountain Province Fruit Wine Processors Association to boost production and create additional employment.
The assistance is under the government's Poverty Free Zone Program (PFZP) and comes in the form of equipment, supplies and materials.
Based on Dole-Cordilleras records, already turned over to the association are 220 sacks of white sugar worth P335,000, fermenting jars valued at P312,000 and testers to determine if the wine are already fermented worth P20,000.
Leonardo Doguil of Dole-Cordilleras, who assisted the association in the preparation of the project proposal for this fund assistance, said also to be acquired from the budget are display cabinets to be installed in the different hotels and restaurants in the province to attract buyers and other equipment needed to improve mass and quality production.
Prior to the turnover, the Dole also conducted a three-day organizational management training for the association.
The PFZP is one of the government's strategies to address unemployment in the country. It is focused on the establishment of enterprises and creation of self-employment to uplift the economic situation of beneficiaries.
As the second PFZP to be implemented in the region, it is aimed to provide employment from the cultivation of raw materials to the distribution of finish products, Doguil said
The Provincial Government also released P105,000 last year as provincial aid for the purchase of labeled bottles.
The fruit wine industry started in the province in the 1990s and boomed in the 2000s. Wine producers were able penetrate the big markets with the successful staging of the Lang-ay Festival last year, which highlighted the locally produced wines which carried the generic name of "Lang-ay Wine", and their participation to national trade fairs.
The Mountain Province Fruit Wine Processors Association Inc. is a conglomeration of wine processors from Bauko, Sagada, Besao, Tadian and Sabangan. There are 53 members but only around 30 are active. The final packaging of the Lang-ay Wine is done in Bauko.
Cherries were the first fruits to be processed into wine. But with the abundance of other fruits that are perishable and not very saleable, research and technology opened up wider prospect of fruit wine production to now include bugnay, duhat, lemon, pineapple, guava and even mango.
Fruit wine production has been the provincial One Town, One Product project since October 2004 and is being supported by trade department, science and technology department, Technical Skills and Development Authority (Tesda), labor department and various local government units.
Sister Shirley Agoo of the Sisters of St. Clements in Bauko, who is herself a wine processor, is credited for the flourishing of fruit wine production in the province. She introduced wine processing to the women of Bauko and willingly shared her knowledge to interested would-be processors in the province.
(February 19, 2006 issue)
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