We just got an email from Leo Fernandez from the US bewailing the proliferation of Philippine food products being copied mostly by Thailand, Taiwan and other countries. He said they copy even the designs of food packaging and some have even Filipino words in them.

He writes that most copied are the Sinigang Mix, Adobo Mix, Menudo Mix and others. “I discovered them to be made in those countries as the manufacturing label says so. Naisahan na tayo dito! Pero their prices are more competitive.”

Leo suggests that Filipino exporters should improve their food packaging. “After several decades we still use the old recycled bottles of La Tondena for our patis, suka, soy sauce, bagoong and other various food condiments. Can we not improve and do better? We look pathetically poor compared to the new vibrant packaging everybody else has!”

Well, we have seen a lot of improvement in the packaging of local goods, thanks to the efforts of CITEM which has been staging food expositions regularly. The DoST has also been helping many entrepreneurs improve their production systems. But there are still many things that could really be done to improve the quality of goods produced by our farmers and processors.

If you go to the public market, you will readily see a lot of mangoes that are really very poor in quality. Many are shriveled and with lots of blemishes. Of course there are some growers who are producing high quality fruits like Rico Batungbacal who produces first class mangoes and papayas. He also packages his harvest beautifully so that they command a high price.

We need more farmers like Mr. Batungbacal who always pays attention to the quality of what they produce. Quality will make us more competitive whether we are serving the local or export markets.