AANI Plus

Good news!

During Agrilink 2010 in October, AANI will set up an outdoor, all day consultation tables for almost all aspects of agriculture (vermiculture, free range chicken, organic farming, aquaculture etc). Experts and agri entrepreneurs are the best sources of information. This move will make it flexible for those whose schedules are tight and can't make the scheduled seminars. Aside from the consultation tables, AANI will also schedule seminars in the frequently requested topics :)

We will post schedules here.

Our way of saying thank you for your support.

Where Are We In July?

WHAT: 3rd International Flora and Fauna, Green Living Expo
WHERE: World Trade Center, Pasay City
WHEN: July 22-25, 2010

We were part of the 1st ever International Flora and Fauna held at WTC in 2008. It was a nice show interconnecting aesthetics with usage.

Hope you enjoy this show as much as we did.

Sunshine will be there! Side by side with the AANI friends.

Seminar scheduled: "Raising Sunshine Chicken", July 24, 2pm. We will have it in the AANI cluster, outdoor setup.

No Preservatives, No Chemicals - Free Ranged Sunshine Chicken Sausages

We had been testing several groups' taste buds....it really varies! Much like a Villar, Gibo, Erap and Noynoy stuff.

What I and my friends wanted, was what the APDC group didn't like. Taste has really something to do with food you grew up with. The common Filipino taste buds don't like herbs blah blah....we met all. We came up with four (4) variants: garlicky (patterned after the Vigan Longanisa), sweetish (skinless), spicey and the herbed.

Now we have produced and will introduce it during IFEX Philippines 2010.

For the past two weeks we had been asking our customers to taste test and some of our dealers/wholesalers. When they found out that our freezers had it already, they started ordering! We hope to leave some for the IFEX in May 6-8.

These sausages are at PHP500/kg and will be included in our home delivery route. You may order it in assorted variants :)

IFEX 2010

Booked for IFEX 2010 :)

This is the 3rd year we are joining IFEX. Looking forward to joining this event organized by CITEM. They are very supportive and it inspires entrepreneurs to do better.

See you at World Trade Center, May 6-8. As usual, our regular growers are most welcome to come market with us.

Citem FAME, 50th year

Citem does support the Philippine suppliers and that is the reason we also join in their activities. You have to help others be able to assist you too :)

This is the first year they have added the category of Health and Wellness in their show and am I glad we decided to do the last minute plannings for this event.

Manned the booth myself as focused trade show for buyers are less talk but more do....so you don't end up wrinkled and dry at the end of the day. I have to say we did very good in getting seen and creating new business for the dressed Sunshines.

Still have time to catch up until October 18. Two venues, World Trade Center and SMX Convention Center. The Health and Wellness is at World Trade Center.

Thank you to the Health and Wellness staff of Citem.

Worth Our While

Agrilink 2009 was very good for us. Inspite of most exhibitors' laments that attendance was low, sales were bad...it was tremendously great for us. Granting that the recent calamities didn't allow the expected number of visitors, we were very busy detailing and entertaining. There are normally six (6) of us at any given time in the booth, and no one ate on time.

Our sales on dayold chicks tripled for retail compared to last year's, and orders for deliveries have been booked keeping us busy for the next weeks to come. Dressed chickens were brought for display purposes but we saw that on day1, people knew about our product and were walking up to us specifically to purchase the dressed Sunshines. By the last day, we were sold out quite early! After a day's rest, we have instructed to personnel to look into an unscheduled dressing, as our freezers are empty....a nice problem huh?

What do we account the interest to?

1) Word of mouth - A lot of clients were repeat customers plus the referrals and new ones who saw us

2) Experience - Same with the dressed Sunshines, they heard us through the chicken vine :)

3) Neighborhood - Someone from the large booth across us asked me if the set up of Teresa Orchard, Sunshine Chicken and AANI were all owned by one person. I asked why? He said because from ingress to 3day sales...everyone in the booths were helping one another. That is from food, supot, tali, answering inquiries, panukli etc etc etc....its not just about business.

4) Passion - We really love what we are doing and earnestly believe in our product.

5) Competition :) - We continue to reinvent ourselves and compete solely with our selves.

6) You - Fast learners. Over the years, you allowed our team to educate you about eating well and healthy. You also learned to grow your own food. You continued to learn with us.

Actually, trade shows are there to benefit you. I hope it was also worth your while.

FAME

This morning I saw on TV that there will be a remake of that old movie, it was my generation, FAME. Almost everyone wanted to be a dancer and a welder back then. Maybe not a welder! But it opened my eyes to using large abandoned spaces and things...remember her apartment? It was an old warehouse.

Anyway, weeks ago, I got an email from CITEM, inviting Sunshine Chicken to exhibit in the Golden Edition of the Manila F.A.M.E. International. They are opening a new section for Health and Wellness.

Forgot all about it, buried in paper work was the application I had filled out, waiting to be faxed.

Good thing I saw the news on the remake of FAME and called up CITEM today.

See you there...They will have the big event at both the World Trade Center and SMX Convention Center.

Sunshine Chicken will be at the World Trade Center...Oct 15-18.

Let's support what is Pinoy. CITEM also works hard for us :) In turn, all the shows we join are meant for consumer awareness to benefit our growers.

Agrilink Is Coming!

Read about it here.

Time flies by us so fast that we are now cramming for Agrilink 2009's preparations. Slated for October 8-10.

I have always stayed indoors while Doc Rey and rest of the staff stayed in our outdoor booth. This time, we will consolidate our efforts and have an outdoor setup, beside Teresa Orchard.

Why excites me about the outdoors?
1) We may serve you earlier and after the Agrilink's formal hours.
2) We are able to setup a more realistic and doable display.
3) Seminars may be conducted everyday, even 2x a day. One on one consultations are easier with visuals.

Doc Rey will be around the whole time to do FREE small group seminars. More like 10am and 3pm daily :)

Food & Drinks Asia

Septemeber 17-20 are the dates to calendar for the Food & Drinks Asia & Food Franchising 2009. This show used to be part of AFEX (Asian Food Expo) but the organizers decided to separate the finished food products from the equipments.

We will be joining with a corner booth, across the Activity Center.

See you at World Trade Center in Pasay City, on those dates.

As usual, our growers are most welcome to display and market their products :)

Joining Agrilink 2009

Don't miss this year's Agrilink, slated for October 8-10 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.

Agrilink is touted as the biggest agriculture show ( I will say "yes" in terms of number of visitors). As usual, we will be exhibiting indoors and outdoors.

This early, in cooperation with Agri Aqua Network International (AANI) we are planning on how to give you a better showing of our products.

As usual, our Sunshine growers are most welcome to join us in marketing their products in all the trade shows that we join.

PIFGEX 2009- UPDATED

That is the Philippine International Flora and Fauna Garden Expo 2009.

We joined this trade show last year and found the market to be very receptive.

Got a good location. Corner. Fronting a special landscape setting. Diagonal to the stage area. Sunshine growers are welcome to come and use the venue for marketing their products.

A seminar had been scheduled for us on Saturday, July 18 at 2pm.

See you at the World Trade Center on July 16-19 :)

Respite

The whirlpool of the trade shows, seminars etc has taken its toll on me. Actually, might be the thuds of the base in the sound system? The waves of people at the Noel Bazaar? When I was asked what show I will be on next week...I replied "rest, am tired already".

What is rest in the next few days? Sitting, napping and eating junk food in the car! Will be taking Northern Luzon, east and west, all in a matter of few days. Farm visits, almost daily seminars and the likes.

Longer times spent in the car means time for ourselves and just pouting weheheheheeh.

Although Noel Bazaar spent me, I had fun shopping too. Got hair extensions, that makes me look like Mulawin :) Got these cotton do-a-lot scarf, cap, mask..got it in many colors. Drank a lot of fresh wheatgrass juice from the Merit booth across me. Deliberated on this colon cleansing drink which I will try and let you know.

Agrilink 2008

I only had time to take pictures when I was fixing up booth early before the opening, so no photos of the real life of the Agrilink 2008. Such a pity to miss documenting it...but it stays in us :)

Remember my post on thought balloons? How I was segregating my thoughts and calendars in my own "thought balloons" to sort of give comic relief and allow myself to see through a child's eyes? I had no idea yet how I was to spruce up the Sunshine booth. Then, it dawned on me...BALLOONS! Why the choice of colors? Those are the colors of our new improved Sunshine lines :)

As soon as the guard allowed me to enter World Trade Center, I prepped the booth. Then two men were walking up, talking, then stopped at their heels. I guess the booth was effective as an eye catcher :) I didn't know the man in barong, but the second man in t-shirt..hmmm...I realized after a couple of seconds was Sec. Arthur Yap. Soon after, Doc Rey arrived and started talking with the two men. Wehehehhe...it was much much later that he realized it was the Secretary of the the Department of Agriculture.

He will remember our unrehearsed booboos as he walked through with Pres GMA and stopped by our booth and explained to her about the Sunshines. They took pictures with the Sunshine chicks display.

I tell you, those scenes made the Secretary rememember Doc Rey, as he greeted Doc Rey as he was having coffee again later, "bata, madami ka na bang benta?". Doc Rey again didn't recognize him as he was now in barong :)

Louis Perrault, GM for SASSO arrived also. Dinner was a good time to unwind and have laughs outside work.

Next day, there was this man talking/laughing with us about our booboos with the Secretary (oh he was the other man in barong). I asked Pol Rubia who he was...Lydon Tan was the name.

Agrilink 2008 was so busy for us. We had an indoor booth under the French Pavilion, and an outdoor booth under the Friends of AANI tents :) Our outdoor staff was so busy with the retail sales of Sunshines and dressed chickens. It was so cute that people would inquire if the vacuum packed chickens were available. I guess that's our trademark now. Good decision to have a big freezer full for Oct 9-11.

Very successful! Not just in terms of sales. I will say far more than just income.

See you in my next thought balloons.

"Sec Yap, see you in Isabela"!

Thought Balloons

Here I am, stuck in a car dealer's lounge. Yesterday, was my first time to drive again the truck in maybe 2weeks. I was tired so driving slowly. When Doc Rey took the wheel, there was a marked change in his driving habits, I thought he was still uncomfortable from his operation, so driving slowly. Then I drove again and hmmmm, the engine was choked.

I didn't take chances and brought it to my favorite mechanic. Apparently, the car dealer that had been servicing this for the past 3x, hadn't been doing a good job on the filters. So here I am, decided to do the 35,000km preventive to save time.

Emergency breaktimes make you sit, ponder and wonder. Having a million things to do for the week, I was just happy that I got #1 errand for the day done before heading for the mechanic.

Thought balloons...I called my thoughts in compartments and sort of cartooned them...so easier to see what I have to do.

One is my ingress for Agrilink :) Then a cute idea formed in my thought balloon!

Let's see if my ideas will also look good in actual.

An Invitation To Visit Agrilink 2008

Did you read Agri Page of Panorama Magazine today?

Read the online version here.

See you on Oct 9-11.

US Embassy Shopper's Day Bazaar

WHEN: Oct 4, 2008
WHERE: World Trade Center

This will coincide with the last day of the Health World show at SMX, but we look forward to activities with our AANI family.

Look for the SUNSHINE AT AANI booth.

See you there!!!!

Agrilink 2008 Seminars

I have been too busy to ask for schedules to post. All I know is we have been given a slot for 1pm Saturday at a seminar room and for a Saturday am in the open area at the lobby.

Saw this page and it may guide you to be able to fix your schedules.

Agrilink 2008 seminar schedules.

Noel Discovery Bazaar 2008

We will be taking part in this event, the Noel Discovery Bazaar.

November 26-30, at the World Trade Center. See us at booth #236, food section.

Organic Produce Need Not Be Expensive

Mr Zac Sarian and I were discussing about the Sunshine Capons, the old art of caponizing male chicks to come up with flavorful and huge, tender chickens.

One of our growers have started this early this year and had been sampled and introduced to the market in several trade shows we had joined.

Agrilink is another venue great to ask Joey and Mitzi Rigor to join us. We have actually started to book orders for December, but will have Sunshine Capons available also during the October show.

The conversation drifted to pricing....makes me think that led to this article :) And no...organic and natural farmed produce need not be expensive :) Read the online version.

AFEX 2008

We had just come from a successful AFEX 2008 for us. Tremendous interest in raising our day old chicks and inquiries for harvesting growers. Referrals and matching made, with our regular growers. We did what we were there for...educate consumers, which translates to our Sunshine raisers' growing business. They have already gotten calls from interested restaurants and stores.

How you feel the morning after a show, tells how it went :)

We didn't waste our time there! Efforts and time were well spent. Thank you to Le Club and their coordinators' efforts....Stephane, Alain and Agnes.

As I sit now at our table at Market At The Hills, the weekend market at Corinthian Hills....some people we met at AFEX 2008 have already seeked us here.