OAS, Albay, Philippines— Isauro Recongco Sr. likes to say that the balut industry would not have flourished in this town had he not decided at the age of 12 to leave the family farm in this town for Metro Manila where he discovered Pateros and learned the trade of balut-making.

The second to the youngest of seven children of farmer-parents, he said it was difficult seeing how his mother had worked so hard in the fields.

She started work as early as 4 a.m. and yet would still be up until late in the evening doing housekeeping chores for the family.

“So I ran away from home and tried to discover better opportunities in Manila,” he said.

Thriving industry

The years 1963 to 1968 found him immersed in scores of households in Pateros where he observed firsthand a thriving backyard industry consisting of duck-raising and the incubation of fertilized duck eggs to produce balut.

When he got married in 1970 and returned to his hometown, he initially worked at the Philippine Iron Mines in Camarines Norte.

It was not until 1986 when work options at the mines slackened that he took to heart what his wife said, “Didn’t you tell me when you were courting me that you knew how to make balut?”

Thanks to the knowledge, which he said was already “programmed” in his mind because of his exposure to Pateros, he embarked on a venture that would be eventually be carried on by two of his four children and their families.

Duck eggs

His sons Isauro, 37, and Joshua, 35, and their wives take care of all aspects of the enterprise known as Recongco’s balutan, hatchery and “itlog na maalat”-making that involve the processing of duck eggs into balut, penoy and itlog na maalat or salted egg.

Three times a week, they buy a minimum of 30,000 fresh duck eggs at P4.20 a piece from suppliers coming from duck farms in Oas, Pili, in Camarines Sur and Sorsogon.

Sometimes, when demand is good, they would source from suppliers from as far as Masbate and Samar provinces.

Duck eggs are incubated for 13-14 days in cylindrical containers filled with rice husk to produce balut.

Other eggs are simply boiled to produce penoy.

Market days

Then, another batch of duck eggs is salted and processed for 15 days to become salted eggs.

Every week, the brothers distribute the eggs in various towns in Albay as well as in Sorsogon City and parts of Camarines Sur.

Tuesdays find them in Legazpi City; Wednesdays, Sorsogon City; Thursdays, Pili, Camarines Sur, and the towns of Polangui and Ligao in Albay; Fridays, Oas and Camalig in Albay; and Saturdays, Legazpi City and Sorsogon City.

On each market day, the brothers release a total of 6,000 to 9,000 eggs or 2,000 to 3,000 pieces of each kind (balut, penoy and maalat) to retailers or consignees, with penoy pegged at P4 per piece, balut, P7.50 to P8 and maalat, P6.

Setup

About three years ago, brothers Isauro and Joshua benefited from an assistance given by the Department of Science and Technology’s Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program (Setup).

The brothers acquired a P150,000 loan from the program, which helped them get equipment they need to systematize production and ease the laborious process, especially in the incubation of the duck eggs.

The automated duck egg processing and fowl hatchery equipment and generator is located in their production area-cum-warehouse near the family home in this town.

With the new equipment, the good quality of the family’s egg products is ensured because the incubation process is enhanced.

And as sales roll in, the family is able to pay back the loan at P3,000 to P5,000 a month.

Confidence

Isauro Sr. has no doubt that through the hard work of his sons and their wives, they will fully pay back the loan.

He has reason to be confident as over the last 20 years, the trade he started has helped his family acquire their own pieces of property—a house and lot, production house-cum-warehouse and a light truck for delivery of the eggs to the marketplaces.

“[To think that] I was just living in a house made of nipa when I started raising my family,” Isauro Sr. said.

He was also able to put two other children in school—one is now working in Taiwan after completing a computer science course while another is a fourth year college student taking up mechanical engineering.

He believes that in time, his grandchildren will take their turn at reaping the benefits of the successful enterprise he started all those years ago.