The late 2000 was a period when there was nary a demand for organic and natural products, especially among developing countries like the Philippines.
But the triumvirate of Chit
Juan, Reena Francisco and Jeannie Javelosa believed otherwise. They decided to go
against the common belief and stuck to their gut-feel instinct that the market
for such products will soon appreciate. And this paved the way for the birth of
ECHOstore in 2008.
“Will you make money out of this
business?” friends asked with a mix of concern and pessimism.
The ECHOstore trio, however, knew
it was just a matter of time. Despite the skepticism around them, ECHOstore
carried on. Being the pioneer of sustainable lifestyle store, ECHOstore
persevered, until the general public started to get conscious about organic
sources for vegetables, rice and even coffee.
Fast forward to 2019 and Juan met
Naturland’s international manager Marco Schluter through another friend Girlie
Sarmiento—another organic believer. Since they share the same vision and mission
of helping the farmers in developing natural products, ECHOstore agreed to be
Naturland’s marketing partner. With the partnership, farmers can now sell their
produce through ECHOstore and its distribution network—from Metro Manila to
Davao and Cagayan de Oro City.
“Organic is not input-based, but
knowledge-based” said Schluter who has worked with over 3,000 farmers in
Visayas and Mindanao. Naturland makes sure products like sugar cane and what
grows around it—rice and others— will all be organically certified to Exeter
export markets like Germany,” Schluter said in a news statement.
Naturland farmers and processors
have global pioneers in organic farming for over 30 years. The world’s
first-ever conversion to organic agriculture of tea gardens in Sri Lanka and
India in the 1980s was the prelude to the successful work on an international
scale. Currently over 65,000 farmers in 58 countries manage an area of some
440,000 hectares according to the Naturland standards.
For ECHOstore the work continues
with more farmers in Luzon most especially. “I can get VCO [virgin coconut oil]
from Palawan instead of Davao for our Luzon locations” said Juan. “While for
our Davao and CDO [Cagayan de Oro] stores the farmers from Mindanao can supply
them,” she continued.
The partnership is practical as
ECHOstore has stores all over the country and farmers will be more efficient
selling to the closest store possible. This way, extra freight and carbon
footprint is minimized.
Soon, ECHOstore will beef up its cafés and stores with products from
various Naturland farming communities
all over the country.