Crabs and crabby may have negative meanings. But for the Navarros of Pampanga, crabs and crab paste mean a haul of satisfied horde of customers.

Navarro Foods International Inc. (Navarro’s) started in 1978 in a rickety kitchen with taba ng talangka (crab-fat paste) as its sole product. But over the years, tenacity and focus allowed it to crawl into the export market with a full line of such unique homespun goodies.

Daily, Navarro’s processes 250 kilos of crab-egg paste that make 1,000 bottles of the ready-to-eat delicacy. Its modern cold storage can hold a five-month worth of supplies. Its halal and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) certifications speak for the company’s commitment to international food safety and quality standards.

“I owe much of where we are to the Department of Science and Technology [DOST],” says Gil Navarro, Navarro’s president and CEO. “Through the DOST, I learned how technology can help me boost my business.”

Modest start

On a visit to DOST-assisted projects in the province, Navarro showed Science Secretary Estrella Alabastro how his company moved forward through technology intervention.

“Look at these pictures,” he said, flashing some early ’80s photos of workers preparing sizable crab-fat paste manually.

Technology intervention

Things clambered out of the cluttered production system when Navarro enlisted for the Manufacturing Productivity Extension for Export Promotion (Mpex) program through the DOST’s Pampanga Science and Technology Center. Mpex is a program of the DOST’s Technology Application and Promotion Institute (Tapi) designed to help increase the productivity of small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs).

Mpex provides productivity consultancy services, business audit, training, technical assistance, venture financing and prototype development.

Through Mpex, experts made several recommendations to improve Navarro’s production system. Subsequently, Navarro applied for the DOST’s assistance through the Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program (Setup). Setup is the DOST’s nationwide strategy to assist SMEs in adopting technological innovations to improve their operations and enhance competitiveness.

Before Setup, Navarro’s sterilized its products using separate pressure cookers, which was tedious to say the least.

Through Setup, it acquired equipment that accelerated sterilization and significantly raised daily production. These include a steam retort, boiler, steam-jacketed kettle, double-sink table and working table.

For its counterpart, Navarro’s had to expand its plant to establish a cold storage system.

Following Setup intervention, Navarro’s achieved operational efficiency with enhanced production system from cooking to packaging, sealing, labeling, inventory and distribution, and marketing.

“We market our products mainly through exhibits” as far as New York City and China, Navarro said.

Currently, Navarro’s products are on supermarket shelves of SM, Robinsons, KCC Mall in General Santos City and other local malls, aside from food carts in malls. The products are also sold in Tri Trade International in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Industry recognitions

The improvements in Navarro’s product portfolio caught the attention of the food industry’s award-giving bodies. The company earned two Outstanding Otop SME for 2007 from the Pampanga Otop Conference and the Central Luzon Otop Recognition, Plaque of Recognition from the ISO22000:2005 Food Safety Management System, and Most Outstanding Pampanga Food and Delicacies Brand. Navarro’s is working on ISO 22000 accreditation. Otop stands for “one town, one product.”

The company also expanded its trade affiliations to include Sweets and Delicacies Association of Pampanga Inc., Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Philippine Food Exporters Association and Philippine Exporters Association.

Products

Navarro’s crab paste has several variants. Premium crab paste is made of pure crab fat, while the special type is made of crab fat with some crab meat, and the regular variety—the traditional Capampangan blend—has equal mix of crab fat and crab meat.

Crab paste is a traditional specialty of Masantol, Pampanga, that is used as side dish or ingredient to seafood, pasta dishes and other local foods such as pancit (noodles) Malabon.

Other Navarro’s products include fermented mudfish in rice (burong dalag), fermented shrimp in rice (burong hipon), pickled papaya (achara) and sautéed shrimp paste. Burong dalag and burong hipon complement fish and vegetable dishes.

Sautéed shrimp paste is mildly flavored with spices. Papaya pickle, meanwhile, is a flavorful sweet-sour blend of papaya, carrots, spices and syrup—flavorsome entrée or side dish for fried or grilled dishes.

The products come in smart export-quality packaging with the prominent sun logo. Besides these core products, Navarro’s also offers garlic peanuts, peanut brittle, uraro, tarts and other baked goods. 

LEADING global institutions, including India-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semiarid Tropics (Icrisat), endorsed the Copenhagen Communiqué on climate change by signing the document. 

Dr. William Dar, Icrisat’s director general, signed the communiqué along with the executives of Adidas Group, Cable & Wireless Plc., Cathay Pacific Airways, HSBC, Procter & Gamble and Swiss Re, and more than 350 companies of all sizes and background, Icrisat said in a press release.

 The communiqué, an initiative of HRH The Prince of Wales Corporate Leaders Group (CLG) on Climate Change, University of Cambridge program for sustainability leadership, will become the definitive statement from the international business community ahead of the crucial United Nations negotiations on climate change in Copenhagen in December.

“The communiqué, which is being issued by a large number of global institutions, calls for an ambitious, robust and equitable global deal on climate change that responds credibly to the scale and urgency of the crises facing the world today,” Icrisat said.

The CLG will launch the communiqué to the international media this week. The group aims to hand it personally to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at a public event in New York before the Copenhagen Summit.

The UN’s Copenhagen Summit in December seeks to establish an effective and consistent set of climate goals by integrating the insights of policymakers, academics, business leaders and environmentalists alike, following similar talks in Bali in 2007 and Poznan in 2008.

“Icrisat is delighted to be a signatory of the communiqué as the geographical area where Icrisat works is the semiarid tropics of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where one-sixth of the world’s population and more than 500 million of the world’s poorest people live,” the institute said.

With climate change, Icrisat added, the farmers of these regions will have to deal with delayed sowing, changes in cropping patterns, higher pest and disease incidence, frequent and persistent droughts, less water and less crop production leading to decreased incomes.

“Ultimately, they will be forced to shift toward nonfarm occupations or migrate elsewhere as environmental refugees,” it said.

Dar, formerly the Philippines’ agriculture secretary, affirmed, “Icrisat is well placed to respond to this challenge. Along with our partners, we recognize the importance of the issue and firmly believe that our approach will benefit the livelihoods of communities who are the most vulnerable to climate change.”

Icrisat’s research is focused on crops that are important for the livelihoods of the people in the dryland areas. The crops—pearl millet, sorghum, chickpea, pigeonpea and groundnut—have several natural evolutionary advantages for global-warming scenarios.

Both pearl millet and sorghum have high levels of salinity and heat tolerance, and hence are better adapted to areas that are likely to become saline due to global warming. 

Icrisat, together with agriculture-research institutions in the Philippines, are undertaking research on some of the crops for use by Filipino farmers.

Icrisat’s three-fold strategy

Icrisat’s plan to deal with climate change has a three-fold objective. In the short- to medium-term, the focus is to help dryland farmers deal with current weather and rainfall variabilities. In the medium- to long-term the focus is to develop crop varieties that will be adapted to a water-scarce and warmer world, the institute said.

The crop-research institute considers as “key to dealing with the future” the improvement of crops to better adapt to climate change.

“For a successful strategy, there is need for early planning, flexibility and dynamism in research, making the best use of information and developing strong and effective partnerships with institutions to deliver the best research products for the farmers,” it said.

Modeling studies carried out at Icrisat show that there would be a drop in agricultural productivity with climate change in the semi-arid tropics.

“However, with a combination of climate change-ready varieties and improved agronomic practices, the empowered dryland farmer will be able to almost overcome the adverse impact of a warmer world,” it noted.

Enhancing adaptability of mandate crops

It is under this situation, Icrisat said, that its research on enhancing the adaptability of its mandate crops to climate change becomes important.

The key factors of adaptability that are being built into Icrisat’s crop-improvement research are developing varieties with high temperature tolerance, ability to deal with both decreased and increased soil-moisture conditions, and changed distribution and severity of pests and diseases.

It said that since there is a possibility of Icrisat’s mandate crops migrating to new geographical areas due to climate change, its researchers are also trying to include this implication while developing improved varieties.

THE Senate Committee on Climate Change endorsed last week an early Senate ratification of an agreement for the Philippines to host the Asean Center for Biodiversity (ACB).

Sen. Loren Legarda, who chairs the committee, joined foreign-relations committee chairperson Sen. Miriam Santiago in pushing for congressional ratification of the host-country agreement on the ACB that was signed by Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo on August 8, 2006.