Food supplement exporter taps local suppliers for raw materials

Herbcare Corp. will start buying raw materials from local ampalaya (bitter melon) farmers to keep up production as it tries to sell more of its flagship Charantia-brand food supplements domestically and abroad.

Company president Lito M. Abelarde said he was in talks with ampalaya farmers based in Bulacan for a steady supply of the “bonito” or small, rounded ampalaya that his company uses in making Charantia products ranging from looseleaf tea to capsules.

“We’ve been making Charantia for 15 years now and ever since, we’ve always used the bonito variety. We import all our raw materials, the ampalaya fruits, from Vietnam but starting this year we want to get from local farmers as well if they can assure us of a steady supply and consistent quality,” Abelarde said.

Abelarde said he was exposed to bitter melon tea in Vietnam around 1989 and started importing ampalaya fruits to make into Charantia in 2001. He said it was only later that he learned a local company called East West Seed Co. was the one exporting ampalaya seeds to Vietnam for the use of farmers there.

“It’s been very hard to find local suppliers who can assure us of a steady supply of bonito ampalaya because the farmers here tend to cater to the wet market buyers, who prefer the long fruits of another variety (of ampalaya),” Abelarde said.

However, he said he was set to sign up Bulacan farmers as suppliers starting February and would be contracting from other provinces as well.

“We want to get supply from various provinces. Besides farmers, we are also talking to ingredients suppliers to set up semi-processing facilities where ampalaya farmers are located so they can get the fresh fruits from the farmers. The ingredients makers can chop up, dry, and roast the flesh and seeds before transporting to our plant in Laguna so that we can minimize wastage during transport,” Abelarde said.

He said building a supply chain that connects farmers with supplement makers such as Herbcare and other companies would raise the level of ampalaya farming and result in higher income from farmers because they do not have to depend on wet markets and grocery consignments anymore.

Charantia is available in the Philippines and is also exported to Australia, Europe, Japan, Mexico, the Middle East, South Korea, Turkey, and the United States.

Herbcare has other products but its main brand is Charantia, which is made from ampalaya (momordica charantia) and is mainly marketed to help maintain normal blood sugar levels.

Abelarde said marketing Charantia as a dietary supplement for diabetics, backed by scientific studies and allowed by the Food and Drug Administration or FDA, could soon be complemented by marketing the product as a supplement to help cancer prevention and management. Citing new studies showing that pure ampalaya products may help cancer prevention and treatment, Abelarde said that would be another market for Charantia.

Herbcare is thus set to expand Charantia sales in its present domestic and export markets, he said.

The overall global market for natural food supplements and related food-based wellness products is $4.5 trillion. The niche market for blood sugar management, which is the main market for Charantia, is a fraction of this overall market, he said.

Abelarde said part of his efforts to expand exports was to work with the Chamber of Herbal Industries of the Philippines Inc. or CHIPI to make the Tariff Commission assign a proper tariff classification for herb-based food supplements. “Our products tend to be lumped together with other products such as, say, cacao, so tracking and facilitating trade is a challenge,” Abelarde said.

Ampalaya is among the top Philippine herbs and vegetables recognized by the Department of Health to have medicinal properties and remedy for known and common ailments. Charantia is the only pure-ampalaya food supplement and the only herbal product officially endorsed by the Association of Municipal Health Officers of the Philippines, a national medical organization that operates the country’s health centers, Abelarde said.