Bicolano magic in a can - Planters Development Bank

Moondish:
CANNED LAING
for the WORLD
BY TICHOT SAN PABLO AND NED LIUAG
More than one in ten Filipinos
live and work outside the
Philippines; as of last count,
it was estimated that there
are over 9 million Filipinos overseas.
These are our modern heroes, representing
a huge slice of the population, and
bringing home an even bigger chunk of
the country’s financial earnings.
What do all overseas Filipinos have in
common? For sure, they are all homesick.
They miss their families, their hometowns,
their friends, the Filipino way of
life, and of course, Filipino food!
For Rufino ‘Jun’ Manrique and wife
Ana, the way to keeping the islands close
to many a nostalgic Filipino’s heart is a
can of laing with the Moondish brand.
Jun and Ana are pioneers in the
production of canned laing—taro (gabi)
leaves and stalks cooked in coconut
cream, seasoned with ginger, chili
and other spices—and their company
Moondish, Inc. has been supplying
Filipinos overseas with the traditional
dish for almost a decade.
Bicolano Magic in a Can
To the imaginative consumer, the magical
flavor of the Moondish brand is believed
to derive from the marriage of moonlit
volcanic soil and the rains of the Pacific
monsoon that sweeps across the Bicol region.
It is there that Ana traces her roots
and where the choice ingredients that go
into every Moondish can—the coconut
and taro—are grown and harvested by
hard-working villagers.
Like many idealistic members of their
generation, Jun and Ana spent 10 years
doing their share to accelerate change as
community organizers among the rural
poor. As their family responsibilities
increased, the couple realized that they
could still make a difference in society
through the medium of entrepreneurship.
Working from home in Moonwalk
Village in Las Piñas, the couple’s
first venture was called Moonbake
Breadhouse. With their background in
commercial bakery management, the
couple did brisk business supplying
chocolate crinkles and baked goodies to
schools and stores around Metro Manila
and in nearby provinces.
But its success was cut short by
the Asian financial crunch of 1997.
Skyrocketing flour and sugar prices
prompted Jun and Ana to scout for more
profitable alternatives. For a time, the
business shifted to banana chip and
buko pandan production, but that pursuit
proved neither exciting nor satisfying for
the couple.
In their search for a new product, Jun
and Ana chanced upon an innovative
idea at the Food and Nutrition Research
Institute in Taguig, where more than
90 food technologies are lined up for
the commercial mainstream. “New
technology and product ideas exist out
there waiting for the entrepreneur to put
THE MANRIQUE’S REALIZED THEY COULD
MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN SOCIETY THROUGH
THE MEDIUM OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP.
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VOL. NO. 03 / ISSUE NO. 05