NAGA CITY – Initial shipment of pili candy products worth P750,000 will be flown from Manila to Tokyo this month, according to spouses Joseph and Lydia Lomibao, owner-proprietors of J. Emmanuel Pastries based in Canaman town and this city.

Photo Caption: TO TOKYO WITH LOVE. Japanese investor Murata San takes a close look at the Pili food processing plant of J. Emmanuel Pastries in Canaman, Camarines Sur as he prepares for shipment of the Bicolano delicacy for supermarkets in Tokyo, Japan.

        The shipment which consists of 100 boxes each of roasted pili nuts, salted pili nuts, and honey-laced crispy pili nuts will initially be shipped thru air cargo at the expense of the Tokyo-based importer who also advanced payment for the cost of the products. Succeeding freights will be forwarded thru Cebu, along with dried mango products from that province, the Lomibaos said.

        Lydia Lomibao said she was told by the Japanese buyer that the first shipment would mainly serve as samples for “free-tasting” in selected supermarkets in Tokyo to widen the marketability of the Bicol-produced pili delicacies, although orders have already been booked for the succeeding months as stipulated in the export contract that provides payment in dollars.

        The Bicolana pili entrepreneur was in Tokyo late last year during the Japan-Asean Food and Beverage Exhibition where she was one of the only three exhibitors from the Philippines fully endorsed and supported by the Department of Trade and Industry.

        She said her pili products were a hit among Japanese shoppers and shop owners, which prompted at least three Tokyo investors to vie for exclusive Philippine-Japan distribution contract with J. Emmanuel Pastries.

        Joe Perez, Lydia’s elder brother who acts as marketing manager for exports, disclosed that with the contract, food processing equipment and facilities, including packaging and labeling that fit Japanese taste and design, were upgraded specifically to meet Japanese market standards.

        “Much to our surprise, the Japanese importer who also markets dried mangoes from Cebu to Japan has offered to lend Joseph and Lydia P1 million or more worth of equipment and packaging machines without interest and which amount not deductible from the cost of the deliveries made,” Perez said.

        He added that the English-speaking Japanese investor whom they fondly call as Murata San has been in Naga on several occasions, at one time making an ocular inspection of the pili tree plantation at Engr. Boy Aman’s “Haciendas de Naga” to familiarize himself with the Bicol indigenous nut.

        Meanwhile, during the recent meeting of the Bicol Pili Industry Board at the DA regional office in Pili, Camarines Sur last Tuesday, Perez lamented the sudden skyrocketing of prices of raw pili nuts, specifically from Sorsogon suppliers and planters shortly after the typhoon and the Christmas season.

        He said that while suppliers apparently had huge stocks before the typhoon’s onslaught, they continue to idle them in warehouses as they wait to command higher prices in the succeeding months starting December last year.

        “Certainly the artificial rise of prices will hurt not so much the potentials of pili products bound for export (as there is room for price adjustment) but the local food processors for the local market and consequently the local consumers who are already turned off by the high purchase price of the processed pili nut products,” Perez said.