Sunday, March 6, 2011

4 Otop projects pushed





FOUR One Town One Product (Otop) flagship projects are being pushed for further development by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in Eastern Visayas for this year.

DTI Regional Director Cynthia Nierras said these projects include the e-bamboo, project bayong, veggie noodles and pangasius, all coming from micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in various parts of the region.

Nierras said the e-bamboo (engineered bamboo) project in Southern Leyte has already generated some 63 jobs and is expected to rise within the year.

The bamboo project is managed by the Southern Leyte Employees Cooperative (Slemco), whose products include plyboo, bamboo sticks and bamboo chips.

The noodle is located at Barangay Sto. Nino, Macrohon, Southern Leyte and the hub is at Ibarra finishing plant in Maasin City.

Nierras said the other Otop project, which is the project bayong, is also being promoted by their agency.

"Project bayong in the region has already created 19 and assisted MSMEs. This is in coordination with different stakeholders and a total of 13 skills upgrading and techno transfer trainings were conducted to 558 participants," Nierras said.

Nierras added the project has generated a total investments of more than P445,000 and sales of P1.321 million.

Also, Otop funds of P500,000 were used to finance the activities.

Meanwhile, Nierras said that three DTI-assisted MSMEs got interested in producing veggie noodles and it is already out in the market.

These include the JM Foods in San Isidro; Empire Food Manufacturing in Tabon-tabon and Burak Magkaisa Small Business in Tolosa, all in Leyte.

The three MSMEs are already producing 500 up to 10,000 kilos of squash noodles and 800 packs of veggie fish noodles. These are mainly distributed in Tacloban City and neighboring towns.

Nierras said DTI has assisted the MSMEs in improving their product, such as packaging and labeling, improved market by way of promotion and trade fairs.

Another project that is hoped to increase local sales is the production of pangasius.

"One of the DTI-assisted MSMEs that participated in the outbound mission to Vietnam got do interested in the project that decided to immediately start the business. Initial investment of P1 million was spent for pond development that houses 12,000 fingerlings," the DTI regional director said. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)

Source: Leyte Samar Daily Express

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