Tags: Exotic Food, Food Products, Truly Pinoy Food and Drinks
By Anna Valmero
CORON, PALAWAN – The story of Coron’s thriving bandi industry dates back some 40 years ago when Lita Echague Escarda, a Cagayanen tribe member and daughter of one of the town’s first mayors, started her home business of making this local delicacy instead of transporting cashews to Manila.
Bandi is sweetened and caramelized cashew nuts that are a hit among locals and Palawan visitors.
Nanay Lita’s story inspired other cashew suppliers to become entrepreneurs and to innovate on their local product.
Her ingredients to this sweet success? An improvised cashew nut cutting tool made by her husband, an heirloom from her mother and a strong entrepreneurial spirit to innovate the humble cashew nut into a value-added product.
Nanay Lita rode a 24-hour ferry from Coron to Manila in the 1960s to physically transport and sell her produce.
Like other cashew farmers, it would take from two weeks to a month and a lot of haggling with buyers before she can sell her cashew nuts and go back home. The process is tedious and sometimes leaves her to only have a breakeven in profit because she had to pay for accommodation costs.
“We thought of making a product out of cashew so we do not need to journey far and risk not making a profit,” the charming Nanay Lita tells me in Filipino, while opening her store at seven o’clock in the morning to accommodate her two early customers.
As her small business grew and attracted the attention of tourists, her neighbors followed her and created their own bandi treats. Local tourist guides, however, still recognize that Nanay Lita pioneered the making bandi making here and this novelty often makes foreigners more curious to meet the little town hero in person.
Even walk-in customers often asked the local tricycle drivers to bring them to the pantalan (seaport) area to meet the “bandi queen,” more than just buying her products.
Now at 76-years-old, Nanay Lita shows no signs of slowing down. She personally tends to her small store called L. Escarda’s Coron Harvest while teaching her grandsons about the business.
She even demonstrates how the cashew nuts are sliced in half and carved before being roasted or cooked in caramelized brown sugar.
To date, Nanay Lita employs the help of young children in her neighborhood to sort the quality cashew nuts for cooking. According to her, the children often knock at her door to help in the small home business so they could earn their allowance for school and even help their parents put food on the table during lean months of fishing.
Most of the poor kids go to school without their baon so Nanay Lita allows them to help her for an hour or two. The good eyesight of the kids also help Nanay Lita pick and pack cashew nuts.
I see them not just as helpers but like my own grandchildren,” she says.
From the town proper, hail a tricycle to go to Nanay Lita’s House with the business sign, “L. Escarda’s Coron Harvest.” A one-way ride for one or two persons is about P18 from the Coron town proper to the store.
Upon entry to their backyard, do not be surprised to see tables filled with animal stuffed toys of all sizes and colors. Guests would often comment that it seems like a toy store more than a bandi store, Nanay Lita says.
Since her food business is hinged on the influx of tourists, Nanay Lita hopes that more Filipinos will realize how beautiful her hometown is and to spend at least one of their vacations there.
Another challenge to her business is the cheaper sale of cashew nuts from Puerto Princesa, the capital of Palawan. Since there are more cashew farms at Palawan’s capitol than Coron, the forces of supply and demand makes the cashew nuts cheaper there and more expensive in Coron.
Luckily, satisfied and returning customers help Nanay Lita to infuse funds to her capital when sales are slow. Aside from the marketing promotion from the local government of Coron, she says she still wishes for financial support from other government agencies to grow her production.
This is also the reason why she urged her grandsons to help with the business by taking up courses on business management so they can grow the bandi home factory.
“I told my grandchildren that they are lucky because our brand is already recognized. What they need to so is to maintain the business and take care of the customers who help us earn our keep,” she says.
“I may not have been able to finish school but I learned early on that how you treat people makes a lot of difference in business and overall, in life,” she adds.
After buying bandi and bidding farewell to Nanay Lita, I kept with me a story not of the product but of one woman who helped her town folks realize that the cashew nuts are gold sitting in their backyard and possessing determination is key to start a business that can help a whole town.
Get more information on L. Escarda’s Coron Harvest
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