INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Support from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has enabled a street food business to boom into a multi-million-peso venture in two years.
Receiving in 2012 a grant of P349,000 from the DOST’s Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program (SETUP), couple Maricris and Calixto Huit were able to level up Marc’s Balut Processing Facility in Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay, and produce more of the boiled fertilized duck eggs.
From using three manually operated incubators, the couple upgraded the process by acquiring an automated 18-rack bay egg incubator with a digital thermostat control system and a load capacity of 80,000 per cycle.
Apart from going automatic, the couple was also able to get manpower development training, process improvement, and system improvement for mechanized production from the DOST.
Before the grant, the facility was only able to produce up to 2,000 balut daily and posted average sales of P2.16 million in a year.
The Huits are currently able to produce 5,000 quality balut sa puti eggs everyday. For the first quarter of the year, they sold 360,000 eggs or P3.24 million in gross sales with orders coming from Zamboanga, Basilan, Dipolog and Cagayan De Oro Cities.
From just six workers, the facility now has 22 regular personnel and the couple plans to expand the business further.
The DOST’s Setup is a nationwide program aimed at encouraging and assisting micro, small and medium enterprises to adopt technological innovations to improve their products, services, operations and increase their productivity and competitiveness.
It prioritizes assistance in the food processing; furniture; gifts, housewares, and decors; marine and aquatic resources; horticulture and agriculture; metals and engineering; health products and services; as well as the information and communications technology and electronics industries.
Setup infuses appropriate technologies to improve products, services and operations; provides human resource training, technical assistance and consultancy services; designs functional packages and labels; assists in establishing product standards including testing; and provides assistance for technology acquisition.
Eligible for Setup is any local government unit, Philippine-based company or micro, small and medium scale business firm involved in the priority sectors willing to apply technological innovations on their existing products and services.
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