June 2008
It was 8am on a radia
nt, sunny morning, the first one the sleepy province of Antique had seen in days. Jesse Natan, owner of Natan Muscovado Mill, was relieved. Now the rain had stopped he was finally able to light and stoke the mill’s oven with dry bamboo lumber and prepare the vats for one of the final muscovado productions of the season. The mill, like most of the other mills in Antique is rudimentary, using age-old technology passed down between the generations. So too is the recipe. With no additives or preservatives, muscovado is the healthiest sugar on the market.
nt, sunny morning, the first one the sleepy province of Antique had seen in days. Jesse Natan, owner of Natan Muscovado Mill, was relieved. Now the rain had stopped he was finally able to light and stoke the mill’s oven with dry bamboo lumber and prepare the vats for one of the final muscovado productions of the season. The mill, like most of the other mills in Antique is rudimentary, using age-old technology passed down between the generations. So too is the recipe. With no additives or preservatives, muscovado is the healthiest sugar on the market.This scenario is common in the Philippines - backyard production using time-honoured technologies to make sublime, world-class products. The Philippines is a prime destination for the handicraft and food connoisseur, with each region showcasing handicrafts and food products unique to the natural resources at hand. Filipinos are adept in innovation, finding ways to make exquisite artefacts from ordinary materials. Nito vines, found in backyards and jungles, are made into attractive lamps; harsh pineapple fronds are stripped down to fine threads and hand-loom woven into exclusive piña cloth used for formal wear.
The growing Philippine homemade industry is defying a dying global trend, largely due to the support being provided by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and non-government organisations such as the Advocate of Philippine Fair Trade, Inc (APFTI). For almost 14 years APFTI, working alongside the DTI, has provided technical support to small enterprises across the Philippines to create and market highly competitive, sought-after products using fair trade principles.
Fair trade encourages artisans and producers to observe socially and environmentally just practices, such as paying fair wages to workers, providing safe and healthy workplaces, giving equal employment opportunities to women, not employing child labour and using environmentally-friendly production processes.
Natan Muscovado Mill is one such producer being assisted by APFTI. In fact, Jesse Natan is just one of eight muscovado producers in Antique who are incorporating fair trade practices into their businesses. The island province of Marinduque, located 2 hours south of mainland Luzon, is another province that has availed of assistance through APFTI.
The growing Philippine homemade industry is defying a dying global trend, largely due to the support being provided by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and non-government organisations such as the Advocate of Philippine Fair Trade, Inc (APFTI). For almost 14 years APFTI, working alongside the DTI, has provided technical support to small enterprises across the Philippines to create and market highly competitive, sought-after products using fair trade principles.
Fair trade encourages artisans and producers to observe socially and environmentally just practices, such as paying fair wages to workers, providing safe and healthy workplaces, giving equal employment opportunities to women, not employing child labour and using environmentally-friendly production processes.
Natan Muscovado Mill is one such producer being assisted by APFTI. In fact, Jesse Natan is just one of eight muscovado producers in Antique who are incorporating fair trade practices into their businesses. The island province of Marinduque, located 2 hours south of mainland Luzon, is another province that has availed of assistance through APFTI.
Marinduque, best known for the annual masked Moriones Festival, is home to artisans using materials such as butterflies, and renewable nito vine and buntal – a fine fiber from the leaves of unopened talipot palm. Rico and Laura Sanchez, producers of ‘Butterflies from Paradise’ by Text and Images make attractive crafts, such as lamps, candle holders, clocks and jewellery using a combination of all three materials.
Rico advocates for fair trade as he knows the challenges facing farmers given he used to also share that profession. He sources butterflies as surplus from local butterfly farms at above-market rates, nito, ferns and bamboo are collected from nearby jungles, and buntal is purchased from local weavers. Prototypes are designed by the Sanchez’s; however the production is outsourced to poor communities, who are given the flexibility to balance work with familial commitments.
Turning unwanted materials into works of art is one of Rico’s passions. Tired of removing washed-up coconuts from the fragile coral reef during scuba dives, Rico started transforming them into beautiful household accessories with butterfly designs. Similarly, Rico encourages a local furniture maker to turn waste material into butterfly-shaped potholders.
Rico advocates for fair trade as he knows the challenges facing farmers given he used to also share that profession. He sources butterflies as surplus from local butterfly farms at above-market rates, nito, ferns and bamboo are collected from nearby jungles, and buntal is purchased from local weavers. Prototypes are designed by the Sanchez’s; however the production is outsourced to poor communities, who are given the flexibility to balance work with familial commitments.
Turning unwanted materials into works of art is one of Rico’s passions. Tired of removing washed-up coconuts from the fragile coral reef during scuba dives, Rico started transforming them into beautiful household accessories with butterfly designs. Similarly, Rico encourages a local furniture maker to turn waste material into butterfly-shaped potholders.
Another producer group in Marinduque finding value in fair trade is the charming Riverside Handicraft Association. It was an unlikely place to find chic floor lamps and baskets made from nito vine, and brightly coloured, playful parrot mobiles made from soft-wood. The backdrop was quintessentially Filipino; towering coconut palms, clear streams flowing past mod
est huts, whilst chickens ran as freely as the children played.
Yet, the members of Riverside Handicraft Association have known the benefits of fair trade since the early 1990s. Originally assisted by SAFRUDI, another non-government organisation advocating for fair trade, members of this small community have found ways to remain self-sufficient by looking back to their heritage and continue an age-old tradition of hand-crafting, yet they look to the future by incorporating stylish modern designs. In such a rustic setting of simplicity, by talking to the people behind the products, it was easy to understand how the altruistic aims of fair trade tangibly help uplift the lives of Filipinos across the country.
Note about the author: Cherie McCosker is living and working in the Philippines as a volunteer through VIDA – Volunteering in International Development from Australia. She advocates for fair trade, particularly in how fair trade principles can be applied to tourism.
est huts, whilst chickens ran as freely as the children played.Yet, the members of Riverside Handicraft Association have known the benefits of fair trade since the early 1990s. Originally assisted by SAFRUDI, another non-government organisation advocating for fair trade, members of this small community have found ways to remain self-sufficient by looking back to their heritage and continue an age-old tradition of hand-crafting, yet they look to the future by incorporating stylish modern designs. In such a rustic setting of simplicity, by talking to the people behind the products, it was easy to understand how the altruistic aims of fair trade tangibly help uplift the lives of Filipinos across the country.
Note about the author: Cherie McCosker is living and working in the Philippines as a volunteer through VIDA – Volunteering in International Development from Australia. She advocates for fair trade, particularly in how fair trade principles can be applied to tourism.
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