While other bugnay wine makers in other places such as Mt. Province and Negros continue to rely on wild bugnay trees for their raw materials and are still in the process of establishing bugnay orchards, Corazon Ryan had already has 40 fruit-bearing bugnay trees in her 6.9-hectare integrated farm at Ipil, this city.

Ryan was the 1997 national awardee in the fishery category of the Gawad Saka, the Department of Agriculture’s yearly search for agricultural achievers, for her work on tilapia breeding.

Ryan planted the bugnay trees in 2003 with seedlings bought from a Dagupan City plant propagator.

"The idea of planting bugnay in my farm occurred to me after I tasted the bugnay wine made by Nancy Busacay of the BITICK Women’s Organization. I was impressed because the taste of the wine was comparable to that of wines made from grapes. I then thought that to make a lot of wine, one must have a plantation," Ryan relates.

Busacay pioneered in fruit wine making in Kalinga having ventured into the activity in 1999.

This year, Ryan earned some P1,800 selling bugnay berries to the BITICK at P10-P15 per kilo.

She is also propagating seedlings through the process of marcotting which she claims are of good quality because she uses vermi compost for potting. She produces her own vermi compost in cooperation with the Kalinga-Apayao State College and the Department of Science and Technology.

Ryan sees the bright prospects for the bugnay wine-making industry.