Locally-made organic products enter US market through GKI

CEBU, Philippines - The maker of all-organic personal care brand Human Heart Nature, the Gandang Kalikasan, Inc. (GKI) is now starting to export Filipino-made organic personal care products to the United States to kick off its move to provide the global market with organic products made and produced in the Philippines.

Through its connection with Filipino Americans, and the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), the brand is now present in six states in the US.

Aside from its Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) registration in the Philippines, GKI has already acquired FDA (Food and Drug Administration) registration in the US.

Soon, the company will also work on applying several registration requirements in the European Union (EU) countries, as well as in the U.K. and other continents.

GKI vice president Dylan Wilk, who was in Cebu over the weekend to formally open the all-organic store called “We Love Organics” located at Orchard Hotel, A.S. Fortuna in Mandaue City bared that Filipino farmers have huge potential to earn decent income with GKI’s move to make Human Heart Nature products available worldwide.

Wilk, who is the 8th richest man (below 30 years old) in United Kingdom, gave up his wealth in U.K. to help the marginalized community in the Philippines, to support the globally recognized “Gawad Kalinga” movement.

Together with his Filipina wife, Anna Meloto, the Wilk couple established the GKI to maximize the rich natural resources in the Philippines, as well as help the poor communities earn good income.

“In one of our travels in the US, my wife and I realized that American consumers are crazy about organic products, which we found out that all ingredients are richly found in the Philippines,” Wilk said.

Today, after two years from the establishment of GKI, the company is working with at least six farming communities around the Philippines and Gawad Kalinga farming communities such as in Naga City, Bicol, Iloilo, Bulacan, Davao, and soon a sunflower farming in Cebu.

According to Wilk, the threat of using chemical-based personal care products to one’s health is now becoming an issue, as most health experts are releasing proofs of health-hazards brought about by chemicals mixed in different consumer and personal care products to improve efficacy.

As a social enterprise, GKI maintains to peg affordable prices of the Human Heart Nature products to the Filipino market, while spending its revenue on developing more product lines, to provide the whole line of personal care to all market segments (baby, kids, men and women).

Once its export move will take off, Wilk said the price of exported products will be much higher than in the Philippines, in order to subsidize the cost of maintaining affordable organic products to Filipinos.

In the United States, he said organic products are sold expensively. In return, in the Philippines, only the affluent market or the “can afford” market can have access to health-friendly organic personal care, while the mainstream market continue to use non-health and environment friendly products, although the country has the resources.

GKI is largely using flowers, plants, vegetables, and fruits richly grown in the Philippines, which have good natural ingredients to nourish, beautify human body. These are the Moringa (Malungay), Lemongrass (Tanglad), Sunflower, Citronilla, Tomato, Aloe Vera, Virgin Coconut Oil, Honey, Guava, Carrageenan, Gugo bark, cucumber, mango, calamansi, Avocado, peppermint, sugarcane, melon, banana, among others.

Like the British-owned personal care brand, the Body Shop, which is also sourcing mostly its raw materials in poor communities in Africa, Wilk said GKI is aiming to make Filipino farmers world-class producers of organic products, uplifting the economic status of the poor farmers around the country.

He said GKI’s standard is to give a fair trade share to farmers at least P250,000 earning per hectare, per harvest.

“Through our partnership with GK, we hope that soon there will be hundreds of world-class community organic farms in the Philippines providing livelihood for thousands or our poorest people as raise them up to be world-class Filipinos,” Wilk said.