Marsman Drysdale goes into marketing offensive

Davao-based Marsman Drysdale Foods Corp. has gone into a marketing offensive both here and abroad by establishing fruit stores in middle and high income neighborhoods and by going into more value added exports of fruit puree, where standards are not as stiff as in fresh fruit exports.

Too, the company is aggressively participating in all food expositions and trade fairs, where it gets exposure not just for its fresh fruit produce but more for its juices and, of late, even its flavored water lines.

Marsman operations director Simon B. Valentin said the company’s production of fruit puree both for the local and export markets had been increasing substantially as a result of greater demand among food manufacturers and confectioners.

But fresh fruits, which the company’s Davao plantations produce, remain of the core business although production is highly seasonal. Fresh fruit exports go to the US, Canada, Saipan, Guam, Korea, Saudi Arabia and Australia, which is still being negotiated intensively among local fruit exporters.

Its 2,645 hectares of cavendish banana plantation in Davao del Norte produces 135,000 tons that are exported to Japan and Asia through Sumitomo and Dole Corp., Nova Vista Management and Development Corp. and Alta Vista Agri Ventures Inc. Exports to the Middle East are handled by MD Rio Vista Agri Ventures Inc. The company is also gearing its operations to address the demand in Japan for organic bananas.

The company currently exports 4,000 tons of asparagus, okra and papaya to Japan. Its 236-hectare mango orchard in Guimaras Island – the only guarantined area allowed by the US for importation, is ran by Oro Verde Holding and Development Corp. with about 45,000 trees for export to Japan.

Marsman exports 2,000 tons of vapor heat treated mangoes to Japan as it also processes and markets purees and fruit juices under the Drysdale brand for international and local markets.

Since October 2002, Marsman has been putting up Pelican Farm fruit stores in Metro Manila to ensure that consumers (mostly from middle income and above) are able to get the fruits in season without having to line up in groceries and supermarkets or haggle with fruit vendors in the wet markets, said Bert Alido, procurement and fresh store manager of Marsman.

The company opened its sixth store last month and is set to open two more in Metro Manila, in the subdivisions as part of the company’s strategy to make its presence felt, Alido said.

The Pelican Farms store, brand name for fresh fruits that Marsman sells locally (coming both from its plantations as well as from its procurement from other farms), are 30 sq.m. that has the supermarket ambience and are airconditioned. But prices approximate supermarket prices.

From January to July 2003, sales of the five stores (the sixth having been opened just last month) reached P4 million, Alido said.