Mr. Ricardo Albino, a former OFW and a resident of Brgy. Tarusanan, Milaor, Camarines Sur, has a lot to smile about these days. For two months, he has seen the steady growth of his charcoal briquetting firm, Guibo Enterprises.
Albino started making charcoal briquettes after attending a training conducted by technology experts from the DOST - Forest Products Research and Development Institute in November 2015. The event was organized by the Camarines Sur Provincial Science and Technology Center (PSTC).
A graduate in BS Food Technology from the Central Bicol State University, Albino worked for 15 years as a chemical and microbiological analyst for a food company abroad. When he came home for good in 2013, he thought of investing in green technology - charcoal briquettes.
A charcoal briquette is a compacted mass of fuel made from mixing charcoal fines or carbonized agro-forest wastes and a binder. These are then molded under pressure and dried.
A briquette is less messy than ordinary lump charcoal and easier to handle because it is compact and uniform in size. Also, it ignites easily, burns more slowly, gives more intense heat per unit volume, and is almost smokeless when burning. As an eco-friendly and convenient material, it has a big potential for export to Asian countries where it is popularly used for grilling or roasting.
In 2016, Guibo Enterprises started buying charcoal fines from local suppliers and acquired basic briquetting equipment. Albino first offered his briquettes to friends and relatives who owned restaurants, as well as a couple of “loglogans” (local food stalls selling “lugaw, goto at iba pa”).
Business was very slow as his target clients did not warm up to the idea of a new kind of charcoal. They still preferred the regular type. Frustrated, Albino wanted to call it quits.
With his business partners’ - his brother and his wife’s – prodding, however, he tried promoting his product thru social media in 2017. The strategy worked. In no time, the firm was supplying an Italian restaurant chain in Metro Manila with three tons of briquettes a month.
In 2018, they met another company thru social media, a Korean restaurant chain which exports briquettes to South Korea. Today, Guibo Enterprises makes around 10.5 tons of briquettes a month. From one assistant in 2016, they now employ eight people – six production workers, one driver and one porter. They have also bought a delivery truck.
With all these good things coming his way, Albino has every reason to feel confident. He says that in the coming years, he is looking forward to increasing his production capacity and efficiency to cater to more markets. As this means buying bigger and better machines, he is planning to apply for assistance with the DOST’s Small Enterprises Technology Upgrading Program (SETUP).# (Written by Rizalina K. Araral 16 based on a report by PN Felizmenio, PBP Velasco & Dr. PO Lucena. 16 August 2019)
