Metro Retail Stores Helps Elevate Market Status Of Filipino MSMEs

Products made by Philippine micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are a model of competitiveness and diversity, reflecting the innovativeness and ingenuity of Filipino entrepreneurs. For MSME owners to compete effectively with other mainstream brands, it is just a matter of making their high-quality offerings easily available to customers.

This market access is what Mayette’s Native Food Products, KXC Enterprises, and Dielle’s Apiary and Meadery, Inc. have found in the ongoing Bayanihang Metro x Go Lokal!. The program is an initiative of Metro Retail Stores Group, Inc. (MRSGI) as a strategic partner of the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) Go Lokal! program.

Mayette’s, KXC, and Dielle’s are among the initiative’s various participating MSMEs this year. Their products are currently being showcased in MRSGI’s two flagship supermarket branches, Metro Market! Market! in Taguig City and Metro Ayala Center Cebu.

According to Marietta Bernales, owner of Mayette’s, the joint initiative is vital to raising consumer awareness and paving the way for strong local community patronage. “Our goal is to introduce our products to a wider market through Go Lokal! and get more feedback so we can improve our products. We hope we could place our products in every Metro Retail store in the country,” Bernales said.

The small business offers some of Samar’s traditional delicacies such as the delicious and crunchy Corioso, which is made with the freshest ingredients and has no preservatives and artificial flavoring. Best with both hot and cold drinks, Mayette’s Corioso is ideal for health-conscious consumers.

Its delicacies also include tablea, pure cacao, queso, taro karlang, sweet potato, and banana chips. Completing its line of healthy products are turmeric and ginger tea.

Mayette’s has been joining several DTI-led trade fairs in Samar and the Eastern Visayas region when it became acquainted with Bayanihang Metro x Go Lokal!.

Similarly, Dielle’s Apiary sees the program as an opportunity for small businesses to connect with and win new customers.

“We have been part of the Go Lokal! program for a while already, and we have witnessed how much Filipinos appreciate all locally made products,” Luke Macababbad, manager of Dielle’s, said. “We have different customers in various places in our country, but one thing in common is they love our products for being locally made and more so for their amazing taste and creative packaging and labeling.”

Dielle’s produces and supplies quality mead (honey wine), fruit wines (melomel), and other honey-based products. Coming from the Old English word “meodu,” mead is said to enjoy a mystical, magical, and healing reputation.

Likewise for KXC, a company that offers seafood cracklings, which is a healthier alternative to pork chicharon, the Bayanihang Metro x Go Lokal! initiative is an ideal venue to gain market traction. KXC aims to offer its seafood cracklings to athletes because these are rich in protein; the elderly because of their low cholesterol content; and the adventurous who want to try exotic food.

Additionally, given the uniqueness of its products, it is eyeing to make its seafood cracklings available in stores located in malls and popular tourist destinations in the country, among others.

“Since our product is new in the market and the people are not yet aware that they are already available in select groceries, the promotional strategy, including social media posts, of Metro Retail Stores is helping us introduce our company, products, and people to more customers. Due to the pandemic, our potential market has narrowed down, but since we started selling again in April 2021, MRSGI has helped us to get back on track,” Glazel Capa, owner of KXC, said.

Bayanihang Metro x Go Lokal! is in line with DTI’s efforts to showcase the innovative products of Filipino entrepreneurs through its partnership with select retail partners. MRSGI reiterated its unwavering and continuous support for the sector’s development and is committed to implementing major activities to feature and attract consumers’ attention to Philippine products.