CASE STORY

(By: DTI-Misamis Oriental)

FARM business is perhaps one of the most rewarding enterprise there is, but it is at the same time, the most challenging. Ms. Anatista C. Perez experienced these challenges when she and her husband started their own farm five years ago in Brgy. Lanise, Claveria, Misamis Oriental. Though the Municipality of Claveria offers a great climate to grow agricultural commodities, the fluctuating prices in the market gave them income uncertainties. From the initial plan to put up a farm-tourism facility, they came up with the idea to convert their harvest into a value-added product. The purpose of which is to offer a product to the tourists that will soon visit their farm. This has given birth to My Own Brew coffee in 2016. My Own Brew is a locally sourced ground roasted coffee, individually packed on a biodegradable coffee bag to provide brew-ing experience anytime, anywhere. In addition to the coffee product, Ms. Perez also introduced another product line branded as Trufflea, a dark chocolate made from cacao beans harvested from the highlands of Claveria.

As the first step in the realization of Ms. Perez’ bigger vision of setting up a farm-tourism faci­lity, last May 15, 2019, the Don Narciso Café was launched and opened to the public. On the menu are variety of pasta, sandwiches, breakfast meals and of course, her featured coffee blends. My Own Brew Coffee and Trufflea is also displayed in the café ready for grabs. The location is very strategic as Claveria is becoming a hot tourism spot in Misamis Oriental. The tourists can enjoy the breath-taking panoramic scenery while eating sumptuous meal and sipping their favorite coffee.

Looking forward, Ms. Ana Perez is very driven to offer an agro-tourism facility. For her coffee farm, she plans to expand her plantation this year and be able to plant all the three varieties; arabica, robusta and excelsa. She also wants to learn the art of roastery and hopes to have her own coffee roastery facility as she envisions to offer tourists the whole coffee experience. Also this year, she targets to build an accommodation facility and looks forward to offer farm to table food for her visitors and in the café.

Intervention

Ms. Anatista C. Perez is a graduate of the Enhanced Business Learning Sessions (EBLS) 2018 Batch 1 of DTI- Misamis Orien-tal. The EBLS is an initiative of DTI-MOR to offer a comprehensive learning to the MSMEs in the four areas of entrepreneurship; marketing, production and operation, human resource management and financial management. Ms. Perez undergone a total of 35 learning sessions and four (4) coaching sessions in the EBLS. At the end of the module, she presented her own Business Improve-ment Plan.

Outcome 

Through the intervention, Ms. Perez was able to get idea on how to deve­lop her product. With the help of one of her EBLS coach, Mr. Chris Gomez, she came up with an improved label and unique pack-aging for her roasted coffee. With the improved and market-ready product, it was introduced to the different local and national trade fairs. Recently, My Own Brew and Trufflea has made it to the Inter-national Food Expo (IFEX). The EBLS program also enabled her to build her network. A co-mentee, Chef Carmela Urbano helped her in developing her menu and the same coach facilitated the physical lay-out of her café. In the few weeks of operation, Ms. Ana Perez is very happy by the turn-out of the café’s sales and the feedback from her customers, as she says, ‘its overwhelming and unexpected’.