Spreading Local Love this holiday

CHRISTMAS Pinoy Breakfast Basket

Running out of gift ideas for Christmas? Horrified at the thought of giving the same gift basket everybody else seems to be giving away? Then why not eschew the generic, imported gift baskets sold in malls and go local?

Instead of tin cans of Danish cookies, try the arrowroot cookies from Marinduque. Pure cacao tablea from Cotabato can rival other foreign brands in taste. And you won’t find crispy squid fritters and crispy fish fritters in imported baskets, will you?

Local Love Philippines is a startup company promoting quality Filipino products as alternatives to imported gifts most people have gotten used to giving away, specially during the holidays.

Jacqueline Ong started Local Love Philippines last July after years of traveling around the country and seeing the potential in the local products.

“Right now, we are pretty much like a neighborhood sari-sari store, but only for local products. I used to do a lot of traveling around the Philippines and realized how many nice products we have and, more importantly, how much heart the people put into their products,” she relates.

After seeing her sister, an architect, giving away imported, nicely packaged wines and chocolates to her business partners, it occurred to her that Filipinos could easily match those choices, and with a local touch at that.

Ong’s travels allowed her the opportunity some amazing talent at work. She then knew that all that was needed was a little marketing nudge to help the locals push their products properly.

“I knew the [local chocolates and wines] existed, but I wondered how many other people knew. I realized, why don’t we build stronger communities within our own by buying local, eating local, and loving local? When we buy local, we know that we are not just getting our money’s worth, but we are supporting the local community of farmers and producers,” says Jacqueline.

FRUIT Fiesta Basket

The original plan was for Local Love Philippines to have a store or join bazaars to allow provincial producers to gain a foothold in Manila. But it proved to be a challenge just to gather them all in one venue. And since the company was just starting out, she feared that she would fail in her commitment to the producers.

Then they thought of putting all the products in a nicely spruced basket and selling them off as a packaged deal.

The products in one basket are chosen carefully based on a theme, like the Christmas Pinoy Breakfast Basket. The basket contains kintoman red rice from the mountains of Benguet, bangus oil from Butuan, pickled ampalaya from Bulacan, crispy squid and fish fritters from Navotas, honey turmeric vinegar from Batangas, ginger tea from Palawan, rice coffee milled in Ilocos Norte, and pure cacao tablea from Cotabato, among others.

It even comes with a sandok (ladle) made of coconut and anahaw wood from Sorsogon, and a locally woven table runner.

Those with sweet tooth will surely be delighted to receive the Chocolate Lovers Basket, which is filled with chocolate coconut jam from Isabela, 70 percent dark chocolate with organic coconut sugar from Davao, cacao drops from Cebu, spicy chocolate bar from Cotabato, artisan chocolate bar from Rizal, a hand-woven table runner from Vigan, and chocolate cup set (with stirrer and saucer) made of coconut husk and anahaw wood.

The company also offers fruit baskets, chocoffee lovers baskets, dinner table baskets, Christmas eve dinner baskets, and wine bags.

“We choose our products based on the stories behind them. Like [with] the banana chips, the lady is a former OFW who came back to Batangas because she will get married. She stayed, took a loan, and started her small business. Then there’s this 84-year-old retiree who has a winery in his house in Laguna. He’s very old, but he finds great passion in distilling wines from native fruits that fall from the trees [in the neighborhood]. I look for unique products with unique stories that really touch lives,” she says.

At the moment, Local Love Philippines carries 70 products from 26 localities across the country. Some of the brands the company carries actually are already well-known. But Jacqueline chooses to treat the products equally, because the main goal of the Local Love gift basket is to improve the sales of local products so that every small producer can make a name for himself. She hopes that recognized brands in one basket will carry the other products off to fame, and producers may eventually earn their fortune.

COFFEE Lovers Basket

The price of the gift baskets and wine bags range from P300 to P2,000. It is a perfect package for corporate clients, giveaways, and exchange gifts this holiday.

And as Local Love Philippines is fairly new in the market, the company has opted to sell their baskets online, testing the waters so to speak.

“We are just really hoping the market will open up to these local products. When the farmers and producers get more support than the usual, they will create better products, and we on the consumer end get to be recipients, too. When we see the bigger picture, that’s how we appreciate the purchases more,” Ong says.