Food to go!

In any given year, the current administration hosts several expositions and trade exhibits at our biggest exhibition halls, and they are usually packed with visitors. The Manila F.A.M.E. series especially gets the biggest crowd, and for good reasons.

From Feb. 23-26, the Philippine Food Expo held its 11th trade fair at the World Trade Center. Though big in participation, with 326 booths showing off their choice products, I was a bit disappointed that the venue was not teeming with visitors. It’s a pity because this is one expo, the only all-Filipino consumer event in the country, where we can showcase home-grown products that are affordable and innovative and export-quality.

Adopting for its theme “From Farm to Fork”, the expo covered the full circle of farms production to table consumption, highlighting the natural ingredients fresh/organic farm produce, high technology processes, food safety standards and creative packaging and marketing.

Consider the lowly okra as gourmet salad. They had plates of this highly nutritious and cheap vegetable, simply steamed, with a dollop of salad dressing sitting on a pile of vibrant green okras, ready for the eating. Gourmet Farms had a big booth featuring their organic greens, a whole variety of them which they grow in their farm in Tagaytay. They also had bottles of their home made dressings in various flavors using their organic ingredients, perfect for the serious dieter who has no time for any tedious preparation. Simply grab and go, ideal for quick, office lunches. They likewise had a whole line of fresh herbs and their own coffee blend. When we used to go more frequently to Tagaytay on weekends, their outlet was a favorite stop-over for dinner on the way home.

All the agri sectors were represented, from rice and corn, fruits and vegetables to commercial crops and livestock. Corn bits, an affordable snack here for most Filipinos, was available in various brands. Actually, this is fun and enjoyable to munch on while watching TV, (especially the ones from Cagayan and Ilocos), if you’re not watching your salt intake! They’re too easy to eat that you can finish a whole pack and realize too late that you’ve ingested your whole week’s salt allowance!

The frozen and canned fruit juices, especially the mango juice, have found their way into the export market. So too have our dried mangoes which many foreigners have come to appreciate. If you have tried the dried fruits of Thailand which they market so well and which can be found in all the supermarkets in Bangkok, our Cebu dried mangoes are far superior but, sadly, less known in the export market. More creative marketing and packaging should give us a more competitive edge with this product, and we can experiment with other fruit varieties as well. We certainly are not lacking in fresh fruits in this country.

There were cans and jars of local sardines. The canned ones, I understand, are already being exported, some to Europe and the Middle East. They are the most affordable fare here at home, so I wonder how much these canned sardines in tomato sauce can fetch in the export market. Our bottled sardines, though, can give those canned Portuguese spicy sardines a run for their money. This is a staple at home because it needs no preparation or heating, is delicious with pan de sal or with fried rice, can easily be stored with a long shelf life, affordable and has its fair share of nutrition as well. We should be able to export this successfully. Most if not all of them use corn oil which is a good alternative to the pricey olive oil used in Portugal. I remember that Tome sardines were a treat at home in my younger days, but one can only have about two to three fat pieces of sardines. Our local ones have three times as much fish in one jar and cost about a third of the Portuguese sardines. I noticed too that quite a few brands have sprouted in the market, most of them good, some even using bangus. Dipolog has made a name for itself in bottled spicy sardines, and we found that their fish was not quite as hard and dry as the others, though a favorite brand, Pisces, is often out of stock.

There was actual demo and cooking too at the fair. We noticed Chef Jessie Sincioco who shed her continental flair and highlighted the delights of Filipino cooking. We saw Ilokano empanada being prepared and deep-fried on the spot for anyone who wished to sample this now iconic food fare. There was also a culinary competition that featured food styling and preparation.

Our Philippine food export last year was at $2.4 billion (as of November 2011), excluding the coconut products. Our agri officials hope to grow this by 20 percent through trade fairs like the annual Philfood Expo in order to at least be competitive with out Asean neighbors. Did you know that Thailand’s and Vietnam’s food exports are four times as much as ours? This is not very easy to accept, considering that we were a model agricultural country for Thailand about two decades ago. Vietnam, ravaged by war for decades, does not have the diversity and abundance that we Filipinos have been enjoying (and taking for granted).

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala was there. The simple, hardworking Secretary has worked hard at achieving rice sufficiency as promised. Production has improved considerably, so much so that the world price index for rice has been affected by our much-depressed rice importation. The same is true for sugar as well, and here in this sector, we are now considered a major player. SRA (Sugar Regulatory Admnistration) top honcho Ma. Regina Bautista-Martin was invited to chair the 21st International Sugar Organization (ISO) Seminar in November in London. ISO is the largest sugar organization in the world and the annual seminar is the biggest global gathering of sugar industry players.

We’re doing well on the rice front, but Sec. Alcala still has to address the serious problem we have with our local fisheries. Our fishing grounds have been depleted so much and our catch in the wilds are dangerously low.  Sec. Alcala says that they have been misled by data submitted here which included seaweeds. Now here is where a lot of work still has to be done.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

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