Tags: Healthy Food and Drinks, Vegetarian and Organic Food
By KC Santos
SILAY, NEGROS OCCIDENTAL – Ramon and Francine Uy put up Fresh Start Organics to complement the healthy lifestyle fellow Ilonggos in their hometown have learned to embrace.
Gladys Abayon, the company’s marketing officer, shares that a great change happened since the local government in Silay started campaigning for everyone to go “back to basics”.
“Every Ilonggo started to become mindful of their food intake and farming really went back to its grass roots,” shares Gladys, adding that their organic food business helped support this “change”.
Farmers were encouraged to go back to organic farming while enterprises like theirs supported these farmers by processing their produce into locally flavored jams.
You may have tasted the more familiar strawberry or orange jams but Fresh Start Organics took the processing of local fruits to the next level by using vegetables and rare seasonal fruits.
Their jam flavors include bignay (wild berries), squash, yakon, passion fruit and the regular banana and ube flavors. The product was developed out of the owners’ intent to maximize production since organically grown fruits easily perish.
Gladys says that the fruits were made into fruit preserves so that storage life is lengthened even without administering artificial preservatives. Muscuvado sugar and wild honey is used to preserve the jams, which makes it healthier.
Each bottle is sold from 130 to 140 pesos. Gladys admits it is challenge to market organic jams since their products are more expensive compared to regular spreads.
“Not everyone knows the benefits of eating organic. People must change their attitude of looking at price over the quality and health benefits of a product,” says Gladys, noting that organic products are more expensive because of the tedious process of growing and preparation.
Gladys shares that more than just a business, their organic food products enterprise aims to influence even those not living in Negros, which, she says, is looking at becoming the “organic food bowl of Asia”.
“We want our practice of organic living to reflect in the products that we sell. We also want to educate people about the long-term benefits.”
Gladys says people are slowly starting to appreciate organic food. The secret, she says, is offering something attractive and interesting enough like their one of kind organic jams.
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