Agriculture Business Week

The Figaro Foundation has been at the forefront of many activities to revive a once dwindling and dying industry.

Nothing beats drinking a hot cup of freshly brewed coffee in the morning. Indeed, coffee is an integral part of the day of many people. Sadly, news about a dwindling coffee industry has left many wondering: what happens next? Two hundred years ago, we were one of the top coffee producers in the world. Today, our production does not even account for 1% of the world production.

In the early 1800’s the Spaniards introduced coffee to take advantage of the ideal growing conditions in the country. This, coupled with the vast tracks of land devoted to coffee, turned the country into a major player in the world coffee industry. However, the industry was devastated by the coffee rust blight. This allowed South American countries like Brazil to fill the vacuum. The industry was able to rebound as late as 1986 when the country earned US$15o million coffee. Lately the industry has experienced a slow decline with our coffee exports only amounting to US$500,000.

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Posted on August 5th, 2008 under Coffee, Organic. Tags: Coffee, Organic. Comments: None

Successful entrepreneurs do not spawn out of sheer luck. If in case they do, they become mere flashes in the pan whose shining streaks hastily fade into oblivion. Businessman Ronnie Mendoza, the president of Kaizen Foods Enterprises, Inc., knows this by heart. This is why in his 1,300 square-meter poultry dressing plant in Marilao, Bulacan, the 41-year-old entrepreneur makes sure that things don’t get muddled and de-focused. Hygiene must be properly maintained and equipment should be constantly checked and rechecked. “Time and motion are very important here,” he quips. “Even a slight error could delay the process and that means we can be penalized by our clients.”

Indeed, focus and timing are two business lessons which Mendoza has learned to inculcate over the years to his 13o employees, all of whom are members of the United Services Multipurpose Cooperative, an organization which Mendoza initiated and organized. “As members of the cooperative, they know that they have a stake in the business so everybody makes sure they are as focused as me,” he explains. “Otherwise, all of us will fail and fall.”

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Posted on August 5th, 2008 under Entrepreneurs, Poultry. Tags: Chicken, Entrepreneurs. Comments: None

More and more entrepreneurs, both established and newborn, are finding ways to up the competition. Think value-added.

As today’s rate of growth in the number of entrepreneurs continues to increase, more and more small-time businessmen, even the well-known, are embarking into value-adding of existing Philippine products.

While others prosper in the basic buy-and-sell of livestock, poultry and other agriculture products, some farmers and fisherfolk still encounter problems of cost, time, freshness and shrinkage in getting farm goods to their final destination. And most especially, in a tropical country such as ours, farmers get a comparatively smaller portion of the prices for their farm produce at supermarkets and grocery stores.

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Posted on August 5th, 2008 under SPOTlight. Tags: Entrepreneurs. Comments: None

How can one remember important things? Especially if you have to remember a series of subjects that you need to recall often.

The answer is acronyms. Choose important syllables that, when joined together, make it easier to recall. Talk about a mnemonic device.

Now you will ask what is Mask Talk PH. It is an acronym for indigenous vegetables being promoted by our NAFC sub-committee on fruits and vegetables. It is the focused attention of our core group on Indigenous Vegetables (IV).

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Posted on August 5th, 2008 under Special Report. Comments: None