A village built by Gawad Kalinga in Barangay Seven Hills has Daisy, Evelyn, Bem-bem and Martina enjoying the support of their community in slowly building their business called Debemar's Food Products. They process and produce sweetened banana chips.
Because of this, they are able to encourage mothers, whose husbands are mostly fishermen, to join the association.
"Paningkamot lang (It's just hard work)," Daisy, 39, a mother of three, mused. Daisy is in charge of putting together the right ingredients and frying their sweet, crispy and delicious banana chips. "Malingaw man mi ug naga-income pa (We enjoy, at the same time we earn)."
Thus born the business name Debemar (Daisy, Evelyn, Bem-bem and Martina).
The mothers started their business with only P700 as capital.
Despite the misfortunes that gripped Seven Hills, once declared a no-man's-land where bandits reign, two decades ago, it is now blessed with children and 28 families who live a simple and peaceful life.
The peace and order was broken when Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels attacked Maasim town proper last August 18 although relief and security action from the government quickly flushed out the bandits.
"After the past three months, the conflicts now in Maasim and neighboring towns have subsided, residents returned to their homes," said Vice Governor Steve Chiongbian Solon. "As has always been, the provincial support will go on to uplift our people from poverty."
Among the assistance Debemar's enjoys are the Couples for Christ's donation for building for banana chips processing and at least six technology transfer and skills trainings from the municipal social welfare office, the Sarangani Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), non-government organizations, and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) provincial office.
"Sa una man gud gamay lang among market ug gusto sa mga myembro magbahin dayon sa kita. Pero karon kabalo na mi kay daghan naman mi training (Before, we had a very limited market and the members wanted to get their portions right away, but now we know what to do because of our trainings)," Martina said.
"The Chamber conducted such seminars for these very small enterprises to give them confidence to enter a business, equipped with the basic accounting and marketing skills," said Ed Cejar, former chair of SCCI.
In 2006, before the community mothers stopped their business due to management problems, they produced less than half of their volume today.
With the help of DTI and the Rural Micro-Enterprise Promotion Programme (Rumepp), Debemar had its association papers forwarded to the Department of Labor and Employment (Dole), which is a business requirement.
Rumepp, a seven-year program by the International Fund for agricultural Development (Ifad) with DTI as implementing agency, piloted micro-enterprises in Sarangani in 2006. One of these micro-entrepreneurs is Debemar's Food Products.
Because of its competitive advantage in terms of availability and processing, the One-Town One Product recommended by the province for RuMEPP is cardaba banana. Fresh cardaba banana and the processed banana chips have both local and export markets.
In mid 2005, the Philippines exported a total volume of 19,920 metric tons of banana chips valued at US$21.08 million. This showed a 4 percent increase compared to 2004, according to the Department of Agriculture (DA) Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Services.
In a study conducted by Rumepp, global sales for more natural and organic food are expected to reach US$100 billion in 2008. Global market for processed fruit such as banana chips increases as consumers worldwide are leaning towards more healthy food.
The Bureau of Investments has 18 registered firms of banana chips manufacturers in the Philippines with a total capacity to produce 5.13 million metric tons at full capacity. These manufacturers have their own ways of producing banana chips with their own unique taste.
Debemar's, yet a small enterprise, humbly processes six kilos of the sab-a banana to make 280 3-gram packs of banana chips at P5 each, which they personally deliver to friend-vendors at the public market. The mothers fry this volume twice a week. It takes a whole day to manually complete processing a batch of banana chips.
First, the bananas are classified for the correct size and checked for disease. After peeling, the bananas are sliced, and then air-dried on a screen mat inside the building. The chips are deep fried in a big pan over wood fire, then soaked in another pan with sweetening ingredients, drained and then fried again. To preserve its crisp, the chips are air-dried before being packed, weighed, and sealed for delivery.
"Despite environmental constraints in bringing assistance to the communities, we persevered in implementing the Rumepp in order to see a growing business by them and may change their lives," DTI provincial director Nenita Barroso said.
SIO inputs are rising, but commodity costs have been in steady decline over the past five decades.
