MANILA, Philippines—Times may be tough and money may be hard to come by. And yet, a local agro-business firm believes that one can still earn an additional P6,000 a day amid this global financial meltdown.

First Class Agriculture (FCA), a wholly owned subsidiary of AgriNurture Inc., has recently begun offering the Veggie Cart Pangkabuhayan project to give Filipinos an additional source of livelihood.

In a presentation to the media last week, company officials explained that the veggie cart will establish a new distribution network for FCA vegetables in residential communities through an institutionalized network of direct sellers driving non-motorized pedicabs.

These carts will sell the same fresh and high quality vegetables that FCA supplies to SM Supermarkets, SM Hypermarkets and Makro.

FCA president and chief executive officer Antonio L. Tiu said one would only need to invest P100,000 for the operation of a cart-based business, which is “meant to be mobile but which could be stationary depending on the traffic flow of the products’ prospective market.”

“An investor has little or zero business risk with the FCA investment proposition. The business is attractive as it is and timing is simply perfect,” Tiu said.

While most would say it’s a bad idea to start any business at a time of a global credit crunch, FCA believed otherwise.

“This type of business will flourish since its products are considered a basic need … and attuned to people’s downward lifestyle adjustment during these hard times,” officials said.

As food prices continue to increase, Tiu noted that consumers would likewise benefit from the FCA veggie carts, because these will sell quality vegetables at prices 10-15 percent lower compared to those being sold in the supermarkets, without having to either leave their houses or travel far to go to retail stores.

Officials explained that an investment of P55,000 to P100,000 will include fee to FCA, mobile cart, an initial supply of vegetables worth P5,000 and a first-year royalty payout. Succeeding year royalty and sales and promotions fees, however, would cost the investor P40,000.

The investment amount will also include promotions assistance and cart operator support such as site selection and evaluation assistance; training of crew on customer service, inventory control and strategies on how to increase sales; operations and audit support for daily operations; branding and merchandising; and regular field visits for assistance, among others.

Based on the viability of the proposed location, one can expect a return on investment in as early as six to eight months, since daily gross sales is estimated to reach P3,000 to P6,000. A franchisee is estimated to sell at least 100 kilos of various vegetables a day.

FCA sells highland vegetables such as Baguio beans, carrots, potatoes, sayote, cabbage, pechay, kangkong, lettuce, cauliflower, celery and cucumber; lowland vegetables such as eggplant, squash, ampalaya, gabi, ginger, wansoy, chili, string beans, alugbati and puso ng saging; and lucky fruits such as mango, pomelo, papaya, guapple, cantaloupe and durian.

The company estimates that 50 percent of a cart’s sales will consist of highland vegetables; 30 percent lowland vegetables; 15 percent, lucky fruits; and 5 percent, canned juices.

According to FCA, its target potential investors include retirees looking for investment opportunities and willing to build a network of community FCA vendors; working professionals who are enterprising and looking for opportunities to invest their employment income; and returning OFWs who would want to invest locally while looking or waiting for another job opening overseas.

However, FCA said it prefers its direct sellers—those who would actually peddle the veggies and ride the pedicab around the communities—to be male, aged 25 to 55 years. Sellers, who will be given uniform visors, t-shirts, boots, raincoats, should be lean, clean, healthy looking, enterprising and personable.

It added that these FCA carts would initially ply the A, B and C communities in Quezon City and Marikina. According to Tiu, the carts would also soon be made available in the provinces, but only in selected areas.

“We target to have at least 300 carts by the end of the year. In 2009, we target another 1,000 carts,” Tiu said, adding that they are not too worried about saturating the market since the carts will be placed strategically to cater to specific zones, communities, districts and/or villages.

In this way, no two FCA veggie carts will be competing head on in terms of area coverage.

Tiu noted that with the FCA vegetables, consumers are assured of fresh, safe and quality produce with its nutritional value sealed in with the FCA type of packaging.

“Consumers won’t get the kind of taste our veggies have compared with the less fresh vegetables they normally chance upon in public markets,” Tiu said.

“FCA also has an added guarantee of safety since the brand has veggies that are freshly picked, meticulously selected for high quality, carefully handled, packed and transported with care and delivered and replaced at source—all within 24 hours,” he added.