Tabuk entreps undergo product development training

By Geraldine G. Dumallig

Thursday 8th of March 2012

TABUK CITY, Kalinga, Mar. 8 (PIA) -- Some 30 local micro entrepreneurs (ME) here have undergone training on product development: orientation on standard packaging and labeling from March 6 to7 in order to come up with products that are competitive in the market.

Marciano Paroy Jr., Information Officer of the Kalinga Apayao State College (KASC) Research and Development Department, said that the activity expects to provide the participants a thorough understanding and basic knowledge on how marketing and product promotion works to effectively formulate their business plans.

Through the sponsorship of KASC, said training he said was conducted in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Kalinga.This is part of the Rural Micro-enterprise Promotion Program (RuMePP) follow-through assistance for budding businesses in the province.

Discussions include topics on product patent, copyright, trademark and package label design.

Dr. Raquel Dulliyao of KASC underscored the importance of product patenting and packaging not only for the promotion and sales but especially in ‘protecting the product and recognizing the producer for the invention.’

“Governments issue patents as provided by law to give the owner an exclusive right in the production, promotion and sale of an invented product. So it is important to patent and package all your products,” she said. Food products must also be certified by the Bureau of Food and Drugs, she added.

As an output, the participants were required to come up with a proposed Package Label Designs and business plans and eventually launch their products in the market.

For the past three years until 2011, DTI-Kalinga reports that through RuMEPP, the agency has already assisted at least 115 MEs in the provinces and launched six new products of the province namely, the Kalinga Mt. Coffee; Thes Veggie Noodles; Nitz Nutri Snack; Kalinga’s Best Pure Ground Coffee in Sachet; Café Chico; and Satty’s Veggie Chips.

Launched during the 2012 Ullalim Skills and Trade Fair recently are: Garcia’s Pulitipot Thick Sugar Syrup; Kalinga Coffee Cookies; and Mom-is Bugnay Wine Coffee Flavor. ( JDP/GGD- PIA CAR, Kalinga)