The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), through its Research and Thought Leadership Department (RTLD), conducted the Back-to-Back Training Workshops on Roadmap Development and Marketing Strategies for Calamansi on 11 to 14 April 2023 at the SEARCA headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna.
The four-day event is under the Technical Assistance for the Development of the Calamansi Industry Roadmap in Oriental Mindoro, which is a collaboration between SEARCA and the Provincial Government of Oriental Mindoro. The training workshops aimed to capacitate selected representatives of the calamansi industry in Oriental Mindoro to develop a calamansi industry provincial roadmap. Also, they will be trained on product branding and marketing to prepare them for the roadmapping exercise.
Dr. Glenn Gregorio, SEARCA director, welcomed the workshop participants and shared that SEARCA had been actively involved in commodity roadmapping activities in the Philippines and other neighboring ASEAN countries. He said that these efforts toward “the roadmapping process is complex but effective in engaging and ensuring participation among stakeholders to strategically plan for the development of agricultural value chains.” “Thus, SEARCA continues to provide technical assistance to the national and local governments in developing commodity industry roadmaps that are inclusive and ‘owned’ by the stakeholders,” he added.
Ms. Leilani Briosos-Mc Donough facilitated the first training-workshop on roadmap development. She covered four major topics: introduction to roadmapping, the roadmapping process, roadmapping planning, and effective facilitation. On the other hand, Ms. Caroline Grace Pedragosa, calamansi roadmapping technical consultant, joined the activity and shared her insights about the calamansi industry in Oriental Mindoro.
The second training workshop on marketing strategies was facilitated by Asst. Prof. Renen Szilardo de Guzman from the Department of Agribusiness Management and Entrepreneurship, College of Economics and Management of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB). He introduced the basic concepts of marketing, consumer behavior, and competition. Moreover, he also discussed the use of various marketing tools for collaterals, as well as online and social media content creation.
Various experts from the Provincial Agriculturist’s Office (PAgO), the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Department of Agriculture (DA) MIMAROPA, and the Mindoro State University (MinSU) attended the week-long event. They were joined by members from the Victoria Kalamansi Farmer’s Federation (VKFF). These experts will comprise the roadmapping team that will craft the province’s calamansi industry roadmap.
The roadmap development team will be led by Provincial Agriculturist Ms. Christine Pine and Provincial Planning Development Officer Ms. Lennie Alberto. Ms. Sharmaine Cruzado, Mr. John Mark Malaza, Mr. Jefte Bay-ongan, and Mr. Joshua Alexandre Logmao, agricultural technologists from PAgO-Oriental Mindoro, will join the team. The other members include Mr. Elijah Jesse Pine, director of DOST Oriental Mindoro, Mr. Arjay Burgos, agriculturist from DA MIMAROPA, Ms. Karen Isla, senior trade and industry development specialist from DTI, Mr. Melvin Icalla, assistant professor from MinSU, and selected representatives from the VKFF.
To continue with the exercise, SEARCA and the Provincial Government of Oriental Mindoro will organize a series of seminars and stakeholders’ consultation workshops from May to June 2023.