Guimaras is home to the world’s sweetest and most delicious mangoes. It is also home to Magsasaka Siyentista (MS) Rebecca Tubongbanua, the brain and brawn behind the healthy, vitamin-packed, and tasty mango sauce and mango ketchup.
Tubongbanua’s products are the kind that you can use in preparing on all sorts of food. The sauce and catsup provide a different twist to classic recipes such as spaghetti, pizza, dips, and desserts.
A former overseas Filipino worker, Tubongbanua started her venture in 2003 with a modest capital of P7,000. She originally labored on calamansi puree, but then her attention focused on the dilemma of the mango growers and farmers in Guimaras, whose sales to traders and exporters were limited only to “spot-free” mangoes. Those with slight defects were rejected, resulting in low revenues.
Such concern pushed Tubongbanua to develop and process the rebuffed mangoes and their by-products into something profitable.
Through the help of the Guimaras Farmers’ Information and Technology Services Center based at the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist Guimaras, she started to work on high value commercial crop processing technology. The process is a science and technology intervention provided by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development through its TechnoMart Program.
The TechnoMart Program is a modality, which propels agro-based products from the communities to the markets.
Using the remaining by-products initially used for the dried mangoes, Tubongbanua was able to maximize the supply of raw ‘carabao’ mangoes.
After experimenting for several years, she perfected her processed products. The taste of her mango sauce and ketchup is comparable to the sweetness of the regular tomato-based sauces and dips but with a nice tang from the ripe Guimaras mangoes.
McNester Food Products, which also carries her other mango products like the biscocho, otap, and piyaya, soon became the byword for processed mango both here and abroad.
As one of the participants of the recent 13th World Food Expo (WOFEX 2012) held at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City, Tubongbanua had the opportunity to present her products in this year’s biggest event in the food and beverage industry.
The event gave her the chance to promote her products to a wider market and opened her doors to several prospects and opportunities.
Despite the fact that her business has already gone a long way from its backyard beginnings, Tubongbanua acknowledged that there are more things to consider and accomplish.
She also shares her passion and success to other farmers by serving as resource person during trainings, seminars, field days, and investments clinics. She also provides technical assistance and hands-on training.