The sweet smell of success from golden pomelos

Carmelito "Meloy" S. Mercado, Davao’s golden boy in the country’s pomelo agribusiness landscape, is a cut above the rest. From an inauspicious beginning marked with discouraging business distractions, he is now testing the export market in Southeast Asia which he is very capable of with his vast experience.

These days, his success can be measured in terms of expansion and greater potentials. But more than that, it is the experience gained and determination that impart him with the business savvy that have taken him to where he is now.

From leasing a hectare of pomelo farm which gradually increased to 20 hectares the total size of his pomelo farms has now grown to 250 hectares much of them his company now owns; the few hectares still leased he plans to buy, their owners willing.

Aside from himself, there were only seven other personnel carrying out the operation and administration in 1982: the secretary and six agents. Now after 19 years of hardwork and mastery of market trends in the pomelo business –his firm named Davao Golden Pummelo Inc.– employs some 600 people.

To cut on freight costs to the Visayas and Luzon destinations, Meloy set up pomelo farms in Palawan. He maintains several pomelo stores in Davao and supplies several others throughout the country. Not content with the size of his farms and load of work, he added a 50-hectare banana (saba variety) plantation, also in Davao which yields him hefty bunches of produce.

Says Meloy of the good times and bad in his endeavor: "In any endeavor, there are problems by the wayside; you take them as they come and treat them as challenges that will hone your skills and strengthen your determination to move on. I have no background in agriculture but I am willing and eager to learn harnessing business sense and perseverance. I for one take failure one at a time and fortunately for me I come out none the worse a loser.

For his successful agribusiness venture Meloy is the featured "EntrePinoy" in the MARID Agribusiness Digest recently.

You have no idea what Meloy had gone through in his quest for a successful agri-business venture. From a traveling foot salesman in 1979 that allowed him to see the prospects of trading in fruits, he soon found himself bringing rambutan and lanzones to Manila to sell. And here he encountered his first setback in business.

Rambutan and lanzones being what they are – easy to ripen – the fruits are already of low quality before they are unloaded from the airplane; the price suffers. He had to work fast before loading and after unloading from the airplane in order to get more quality fruits for the customers.

But more than that, capital is the greater problem. Lucky for him, a few of the Manila buyers are willing to advance him a portion of the cost of goods. But these are not enough to cover his financial needs especially during peak seasons. Times like these, commitment of a supplier to customers has to be met. There was a time he had to sell his Ford Fiera and rent a vehicle to transport the fruits he bought from the farms.

In 1982, common sense told him that since he could do nothing about the short shelf life of the fruits he was dealing in, he opted for pomelo which stays longer even when ripe. Besides that, great demand and low supply makes pomelo a promising venture. With the help of six agents, they scoured the breadth and length of Davao. By then, he knew what his business would be like.

He attended seminars, trainings and conferences on pomelo farming and marketing to enhance his knowledge and joined the Fruit Growers Association which widened his perspective. He enhanced his growing body of knowledge by reading books on pomelo and studied technologies on producing top quality and sweet-tasting fruits. Also, he learned to use the technology to delay the fruiting of pomelo trees to space out the supply of the fruits throughout the year and keep prices steady.

His new venture had pitfalls, too. Like when rind borers caused widespread damage to pomelo that brought down production during peak-demand season. He survived somehow. Another factor he has to put up with is the high cost of fertilizer and pest control chemical to maintain the quality of the crop.

Davao Golden Pummelo Inc. is one business venture whose success is minted through long and hard struggle against all odds gives entrepreneurship a shining moment. – PAJ News & Features