Number of new entrepreneurs double in Sarangani

By BEVERLY PAOYON

MAITUM, Sarangani (July 12, 2011) – The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) provincial office reported that new businesses registered in Sarangani for the first half this year has already surpassed last year’s record by 53 percent.

DTI provincial director Engr. Nenita Barroso said registration of single proprietor businesses from January to first week of July this year has totaled to 490 while last year’s January to December record was only 319.

Barroso said this was the result of DTI’s advocacies on Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) similar to this business month’s theme “Pinoy SME, Business Tayo.”

In Sarangani, the national Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Week held every second week of each year has been expanded into a month-long event since 2005 dubbed as United towards a Strong, Wealthy And Globally competitive Sarangani (USWAG).

As of first week of July also, Barroso accounted for total SME sales of P26 million.

She said these were all sales documented from consumer products locally produced in Sarangani.

Sarangani products from each of the seven component municipalities are packaged into the “Sarap Sarangani” brand. The brand comes with the One Town, One Product (OTOP) marketing scheme, a priority program of the government to promote entrepreneurship and create jobs.

The municipality of Maitum alone has “a big potential in rubber and class AA abaca which sometimes raw materials are not enough to supply demands,” Barroso said.

“Rubber and banana plantation are some possible investments which we are looking into given the right opportunities and terms,” Maitum Mayor Elsie Perrett said.

Marinated Bangsi (half-dried flying fish) and Cresing’s Food Products, which is known for its rice and corn coffee, are likewise “gaining its ground as one of the formidable SMEs in Sarangani,” Perrett added.

Other towns also have promising markets for OTOP: Kiamba has its value-added abaca fiber products, tinagak, tabih, t’nalak and decors; Maasim has fresh and processed banana (Cardaba); Malungon - fresh and processed mango and coco water; Alabel - high-value Fin Fishes (Pompano, Trevally, Groupers and Basses) and Sarangani Prime Bangus; Malapatan - tinagtag and other ethnic delicacies, and Glan - value-added coco-based products like coco coir and coco sugar. (Beverly C. Paoyon/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)