Agri-based firms go digital, diversify amid Covid-19 crisis

MANILA – The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), through the initiative of its Regional Operations Group (ROG), is assisting the micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to adapt new business concepts and get past the so-called old “brick and mortar” mindset in order to survive the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

DTI Assistant Regional Director Maria Elena Arbon underscored the benefits of digitization amid Covid-19 pandemic.

“As an advocate for digital transformation, I have experienced the hurdles of convincing our MSMEs and people in general to adopt and adapt digital. Perversely, Covid-19 has effectively forced everyone to accept more digitization into their lives, work and businesses,” she said in a statement Tuesday.

One Cebu-based company has successfully translated its business online.

FRL Trading, a start-up company selling agri-based products, diversified to producing washable face masks and running a grocery delivery service online.

Proprietor Felita Lubon said that although her company earns well producing turmeric and ginger tea, she saw the high demand for washable face masks and decided to look for good needleworkers in the mountain barangays of Cebu.

“I bring the fabric to their homes and collect the finished products from them. These needleworkers are happy that they earn income from their work and are able to support their family despite the lockdown,” Lubon said.

Currently, FRL Trading produces 6,000 to 10,000 facemasks a day for local and international buyers.

In late April, Lubon noticed the huge volume of people who have been forced to stay home and were unable to do groceries as well as drivers who were suddenly rendered jobless.

This crisis gave Lubon the idea of establishing an online grocery delivery service that brings supermarket items to those compelled to stay home and give jobs to drivers who are out of work as well.

Since two weeks ago, Lubon’s grocery delivery service receives an average of 100,000 online orders a day.

DTI-ROG Assistant Secretary Asteria Caberte said developing this kind of mindset, seeing opportunity in obstacles is part of the training, workshops, and other interventions that DTI offers to business start-ups.

“DTI also assists MSMEs in product development, design, packaging, standards compliance, marketability, production capability, brand development, among others,” she added.

Felita Lubon is a beneficiary of DTI’s One Town, One Product (OTOP) program for entrepreneurs who engage in business within the value chain of OTOP products such as raw material suppliers, processors, distributors, retailers, manufacturers.

Lubon is also a graduate of the Kapatid Mentor Micro Entrepreneurs (KMME) program which helps MSMEs scale up their businesses through mentoring on different functional areas of entrepreneurship, produces the right mindset and business know-how.

“In the coming months, DTI may hold most of its training via video conferencing to comply with the new normal restrictions,” Arbon said.

For remote barangays where technology may not be accessible, she added DTI may hold seminars in gymnasiums, multipurpose buildings but with limited number of participants as to comply with the social distancing protocol.

Meanwhile, Caberte underscored that DTI is open to using other viable means to reach out to MSMEs in the countryside such as radio and comic strips written in the local dialect.