When I was introduced to this OTOP project, my understanding was that, at the city level, products were being searched out to represent different city baranguays so that whatever products were already being produced could be promoted. As it turns out, Puerto Princesa City has mandated that the two areas of concentration for their own local OTOP focus would be marine products, and Kasoy (cashew) products full stop.
Yesterday morning, I finally had a chance to sit down with Melissa from the city Agriculture Office, along with Delia and Enera from "Agri" who deal with specific issues in that department. We were also joined by Leo Bachiller who helped Sam Carter, an Emily Carr Instructor who put on a workshop here for local producers here this spring, and Hipolito Murcia who works for the Agriculture Office and also happens to be the head of the Liberty Fisherman's Co-operative that I visited earlier (in Canada, that would be called a conflict of interest, hmmm). Boots from the city Tourism office was an active participant as well. Oddly, there was no one representing the city Planning Office, who is supposed to be the first contact for OTOP procedures.
I was able to give them a short presentation about what Communication Design is and what its potentials might be. I also explained to them what my observations had been after looking around for a week and a half. I divided my remaining time here into two stages during which, with their input and assistance, I would try to complete one major product branding project, one projecgt aimed at promoting and communicating the existence of these products to their respective markets, plus a number of educational seminars to help create foster some avenues for future productivity.
I think everyone was a little beside themselves when I asked marketing questions like who is the target market for a product, what kind of promotion has this product been given, and what makes these cashews different from those cashews? Making mention of observations like the lack of promotion through tourism channels or how the current vernacular of print shop label making could be improved, however, everyone was right on board.
I also asked about how the city goes about identifying producers that need assitance, and what program there is for helping them, but it is done on a pretty fragmented word of mouth basis, and they are handed off to which ever department will best be able to offer support for their area of need. This is not by any means a centralized process. Although there are other products, which are made locally, it seemed clear that for many baranguays, fishing and cashew production were the two principal industries, and so in the spirit of OTOP, we identified a group of women in the baranguay of San Jose who have been roasting, packaging and selling Kasoy products for twenty years, but have no formal packaging system, and could use some organization to boot. I decided that I could spend all of my time searching, or I could find someone whom my time here could really benefit from the ground up, and get the ball rolling. Cashews it is. (see more photos-more to come)
Yesterday morning, I finally had a chance to sit down with Melissa from the city Agriculture Office, along with Delia and Enera from "Agri" who deal with specific issues in that department. We were also joined by Leo Bachiller who helped Sam Carter, an Emily Carr Instructor who put on a workshop here for local producers here this spring, and Hipolito Murcia who works for the Agriculture Office and also happens to be the head of the Liberty Fisherman's Co-operative that I visited earlier (in Canada, that would be called a conflict of interest, hmmm). Boots from the city Tourism office was an active participant as well. Oddly, there was no one representing the city Planning Office, who is supposed to be the first contact for OTOP procedures.
I was able to give them a short presentation about what Communication Design is and what its potentials might be. I also explained to them what my observations had been after looking around for a week and a half. I divided my remaining time here into two stages during which, with their input and assistance, I would try to complete one major product branding project, one projecgt aimed at promoting and communicating the existence of these products to their respective markets, plus a number of educational seminars to help create foster some avenues for future productivity.
I think everyone was a little beside themselves when I asked marketing questions like who is the target market for a product, what kind of promotion has this product been given, and what makes these cashews different from those cashews? Making mention of observations like the lack of promotion through tourism channels or how the current vernacular of print shop label making could be improved, however, everyone was right on board.
I also asked about how the city goes about identifying producers that need assitance, and what program there is for helping them, but it is done on a pretty fragmented word of mouth basis, and they are handed off to which ever department will best be able to offer support for their area of need. This is not by any means a centralized process. Although there are other products, which are made locally, it seemed clear that for many baranguays, fishing and cashew production were the two principal industries, and so in the spirit of OTOP, we identified a group of women in the baranguay of San Jose who have been roasting, packaging and selling Kasoy products for twenty years, but have no formal packaging system, and could use some organization to boot. I decided that I could spend all of my time searching, or I could find someone whom my time here could really benefit from the ground up, and get the ball rolling. Cashews it is. (see more photos-more to come)
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