CLARK FREEPORT – Resiliency and adaptability spelled sustained growth for Pampanga’s foremost food company amid the Covid-19 pandemic and the African swine fever that hit the province.
Mekeni Food Corp., based in Porac town, registered a 16% growth in sales volume for 2021 even as the twin calamities raged, reported its president Prudencio “Pruds” Garcia at the KapiHann forum of the Pampanga Press Club at Swissotel-Clark on Jan 4.
Garcia readily credited the “innate Filipino character” for this achievement amid the “distressing economic times.”
“At the time it was hard here due to low purchasing power, we recognized that Filipinos outside the country have that power but due to the pandemic restrictions could not come home,” he said. “So, we brought to them a taste of home with our products.”
While Mekeni Food Corp. is more known for its range of Filipino breakfast meats like tocino, longanisa, and hotdogs, it was its newer products fish balls and kikiam that proved to be the bigger hit in its latest foreign sojourns.
“Every Filipino has had the “tusuk-tusok” experience. Instantly brought to life among our fellow Filipinos abroad is that memory with fish balls and kikiam, that feeling of a taste of home,” Garcia noted. “So much so that our first container was sold in only 10 days.”
“Of course, it is not all about Mekeni, but about Filipino food,” he enthused. “Our close family values as Filipinos also helped upon their knowing that Mekeni is a family corporation.”
The company entered the Dubai market in 2021, the United States in 2022, and has established its presence in Canada, Bahrain, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Brunei. It has of late received inquiries from faraway Cayman Islands even.
Mekeni Food Corp. was also the first Filipino food company allowed by the Japanese government to export products to the country.
Garcia said that the aggravated situation besetting the agriculture sector has impacted on the price of food products and their `production.
High sugar prices, he said, had affected in the company’s production of processed meat. With the currently skyrocketing price of onions, Garcia expects increase in the price of its sisig product to offset costs.
Notwithstanding these challenges though, Garcia foresees Mekeni Food Corp. registering a double-digit growth in 2023. Punto News Team
