By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
Hotelier Grace Agtina was born and raised in Tabuk, a second generation immigrant. It used to sadden and disturb her that the province struggled with a bad image, how the names “Kalinga” and “Tabuk” evoked negative pictures in the minds of outsiders. She said that some of the impressions about Kalinga have basis in fact but others were misconceptions born out of limited or inaccurate information about the province.
While taking up BS Business Administration at the Philippine School of Business and Arts in Manila from 1980 to 1984, some of the usual questions and comments Grace would be asked if she told new acquaintances she is from Kalinga were the following among others: doon sa nakabahag ang mga tao? (where people wear g-strings); namumugot sila doon, dib a? (they behead people there, don’t they); tribal wars; and widespread criminality.
Grace now relates that her family had a brush with one of these negative realities while she was in college when her parents Rodolfo and Shirley were robbed in their own home in Dagupan Centro. She recalls that her father was so traumatized that he considered leaving Tabuk but after a while, decided to stay. She could still remember her father commenting during the crisis that compared to other places, Tabuk offers a lot more economic opportunities.
Asked if there was a time when she was also tempted to transfer residence, Grace answered in the negative.
Grace’s concern over the unfavorable image of the province factored crucially when a new business idea occurred to her in 2007. At that time, the agri-supply store she set up in 1988 not long after she graduated from college was already firmly established and it was ripe to strike out elsewhere. For sometime, she had observed that the Kalinga Brew, the roasted coffee product of Antusa Refalda, was faring well. She found that Refalda could not meet the demand her product had created and she thought that there was room for another player. Grace also saw that there was potential in the business activity because of the steady supply of coffee in the province.
Something clicked in Grace’s mind. She saw in coffee processing a chance to contribute in the make over of the then unpleasant image of the town and the province.
So when she finally decided to enter the business and the question of the name of the product came up, she paired the name “Kalinga” with “Blend.” Asked if there were alternative names she chose from, she said there was none because “Kalinga Blend” was perfect. She explained that the idea was for the product to tell outsiders that something positive and beneficial can come from Kalinga.
Grace explained that “Kalinga Blend” is the brand name while the business name is Our Tribe Food Products.
Things fell into place. Her initial problem was she had the coffee stocks but she did not have the equipment. But as she pondered what to do, she was tipped by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) that the Tabuk LGU had an idle roaster because the intended beneficiary was not yet ready. When approached, Mayor Camilo Lammawin, Jr. readily gave the equipment to Grace and that was how the initial batch of Kalinga Blend hit the market in mid2007.
The packaging material was a collaboration of Grace, the DTI and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). Her design was critiqued by the DTI and then turned over to the DOST for the production of the packaging material.
What came next was a flurry of activities intended to introduce the Kalinga Blend to the market and likewise to ensure that indeed it would give a very good impression of the province.
With assistance from the DTI, she joined exhibits in the cities. “Attending exhibits was costly due to the booth rental. The sales are not also not much but it is there where you meet buyers and wholesalers. Volume buying is not done during exhibits. Prospective distributors just come to see the available products. The placement of orders happen after the exhibits. It was during an exhibit in 2010 that I found my distributor,” Grace says.
The distributor whom she did not name was able to negotiate for the sale of the Kalinga Blend in Robinsons malls and the All Day Supermarkets in Manila and likewise in some establishments in Cebu City. At the moment, she sends an average of 30 cartoon boxes a week to the distributor. Each cartoon contains 24 400-gram boxes of the processed coffee. Grace said that her partnership with the distributor is based on mutual trust proof of which after working with each other in the last seven years, up until now they still have to meet in person.
Grace applied for a Bureau of Food and Drug (BFAD) license in 2007 but it was only issued in 2009. One of the primary reasons for the delay is the BFAD does not have an office in Tabuk with their staff coming all the way from Baguio City to conduct the investigation and evaluation.
Grace and her employees also attended training on coffee processing and marketing given by the DTI, Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). Of vital importance was the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) conducted by the DOST where the sanitation of the processing area and likewise the hygine consciousness of the staff was stressed.**(To be continued)
