Friday, January 18, 2008 Ledesma: Hello Pinoy!!! By Jun ledesma Sunbursts
I have gone a few times to the US where my wife has a number of relatives scattered all over. Your guess is right. Most of them are in the west coast although she has a close friend in Texas and a few in Nevada. In my case I can only count former Davao City councilor Joe Jison, who lives a very comfortable life in Los Angeles, as the only friend to whom I can run to in case of trouble.
My wife's kin live comfortably. Each time we get to Modesto, we always make time for an outdoor party consisting mostly of succulent slab of roasted beef. In Dallas we always repair to a revolving restaurant for prime steak while we scan the scintillating lights of the vast expanse of the city from the height that dwarfs all others structures that are reaching for the skies.
There is no doubt the servings are delectably great to the taste buds. Each time we talk about food, however, our hosts would always hanker for Filipino cuisine, fruits, and confectionaries done Pinoy style.
It's a no no to bring fresh fruits to the US. For a while I thought that "bulad" or daing would not pass quarantine. But to my surprise "danggit" packed in well- sealed packages are okay. Banana "pinasugbo" are also allowed.
These days, blast frozen fresh cardaba, which delights every Filipino since childhood, has penetrated the export market in the Middle East countries where there are millions of overseas Filipino workers. Sagrex Foods Corporation, which pioneered processed fresh cardaba, discovered a vast market overseas where Pinoys are.
Ferdie Maranon, the Davao-based entrepreneur who owns Sagrex, made trial shipments of processed cardaba in various markets in the Middle East and to his surprise the items were gobbled up as quickly as they are displayed in grocery stores.
Would you believe you can store cardaba or saba for more than six months? With the present cool chain technology, frozen fresh cardaba shipped from the port of Davao will stay fresh, the quality undiminished months after it lands in Saudi Arabia?
The lowly saging cardaba has finally made a name abroad. The demand is high. This motivated Maranon to look for the state-of-the-art blast freezing equipment that he found in Korea. The facilities cost him a lot of money. Ferdie is coy about it but some of his intimate friends cannot keep a secret and whispered to me that Ferdie invested about P35 million in equipment alone.
Today, the processing and blast freezing complex which is located in Tibongco, Davao City, will be formally inaugurated. The plant will initially process about 100 tons of ripe and green cardaba or saba bananas.
The ripened cardaba is microwaveable which means you can just cook it the traditional way for your "minatamis" or "turon". The green cardaba is processed as banana fries.
In this world where people are getting to be extremely health conscious, banana fries will be a big threat to the fattening French fries.
On the economic side, processed cardaba banana commands better price than fresh Cavendish. The native cardaba or saba are not prone to viral and fungal diseases like the ones that peril Cavendish plantations. Farmers are more adept in growing native varieties because these do not require expensive inputs.
Ferdie says that his firm will help marginal farmers because now they can plant easy-to-grow bananas and generate additional income which can help them a long way.
Ferdie says that as soon as he has reached the maximum production potential they will look westward. United States is a huge market as there are millions of OFWs and immigrants there.
I told Ferdie that this column had been receiving feedbacks from all over the world. I promised him and you dear readers out there that I will keep you posted on when and where to buy our native bananas.
I am amazed by the enterprising and pioneering spirit of Ferdie Maranon and I doff my hat for this great achievement which will make Davao City a topic of kitchen talk of every Pinoy overseas. Cheers!
