IFEX Philippines 2010

Right after we set up on opening day, good that I decided to take a picture, as there will be hardly time after as we got busy. Talk talk talk....time to rest a little, then a flurry of activities again. Thank you to CITEM's Doris, Luz and Pia for promoting IFEX 2010 well.

Co-branding, co-ordinating, co-marketing....Alaminos Goat Farm and I met in IFEX 2008, since then we had been helping and supporting each other. Great decision to show side by side. Without borders :) We have the same market profile and it suited us well to be associated.

I won't push a product that I don't believe in. Doc Rey and I consume 20lts of milk a week. Alaminos Goat Farm supplies us with 10lts while I get my other 10lts of milk from Philippine Carabao Center. The best milks I can say. The Carabao milk gives me the cream I live for, the Goats give me the best milk, closest to mothers' :)

Best opportunity to bring out our Sunshine Sausages for intro to the general public. Did pretty well. People who had bought from us had already reordered them, just a few days after. I can't say what sold best. All sold equally well. Salve of APDC, the developers of Sunshine Sausages was there the last day. She saw how the response to the product was, and will be scheduling processing dates again.

Totie and company of Alaminos Goat Farm assisted us from ingress to egress.

Rocky helped during Summer schedule breaks...must be the two good looking men that attracted and brought in the sales? It may have helped, but it is really the healthy goat and chicken products that pulled them in :)

Full support is important from suppliers to media partners and co brands. BTW, Louis Perrault of SASSO was behind us too.

I tell you.....am not yet done posting this and we got a lot of calls from institution accounts already for Sunshine Sausages. I love IFEX :)

New Set Of Breeders

Our production of colored free range Sunshine F1 Chicks are up and there will be no more long waiting time for booking orders. The Certified Breeders from SASSO of France arrived in September 2009, day before Ondoy.

Also, logistics have been more cooperative and our network for Northern Luzon is getting back on the road. The South Luzon will follow shortly.

Thank you for the trust and support, that the colored free range industry in the Philippines, has shown. The Government and private sector made us go farther each year.

Industry Wide

Grateful that most of the regular growers started loading for the Christmas season as early as August and September. I remember posting about loading in August for the really matured taste of a slowly developed chicken :)

What came to us in September in terms of typhoons is known to all. Now, most breeder farms had been affected in terms of stress that translates to lower production, add to that the normal anticipated increase in demands for dayold chicks.....now the perceived shortage.

Several times I had been asked of the demand for Sunshine Chicks are that much? Thank you, it brought a smile to me. But, the shortage and increase in demand is industry wide....the colored, the whites....united colors of chicken!

The government, the respected agencies involved, and am sure all the bigger breeder farms are doing what they can to correct the situation.

We are one in doing steps to ease up the shortage/demand. It is not good for everyone if this continues. SASSO of France is one with us in making sure the demand is met.

Nice, Comfortable & Pleasant Smelling

...like going home and finding your slippers behind the door....describes our mobile office, which we took out of town yesterday for the 1st time. Manila-Santiago, Isabela was the route, with continuing service to some LGUs in Isabela before heading back to Manila on Thursday.

That was how we also kept our operations for Sunshine Chicken. Our group is small, no agendas, no power plays. We have remained focused. Thankful that the chicken on our personal dinner plates don't have to be subsidized by the company :)

Today, as we do exit interviews in our minds, after the two trade shows we did....we know we go back to an operation that is relaxing to be part of, rather to be an outsider ogling us :)

Proof of it? We saw how during Agrilink. Other companies ride on our and our supplier's name and popularity. Many people walk up and say other companies say they are just the same as us. Or that they use the brand we breed.

Merci...we are not the same. We import from SASSO of France. Documents may be checked. Our company is forever reinventing itself. Product development is constant. We study what will be good for you.

Thank you for the complement! We are glad to be simple and keeping decisions neat and serving. Even SASSO of France has seen that.

How Many Golden Stars?

New frequently asked questions...

Where is the origin of Starshines?

We import the PS from SASSO of France.

How many golden eggs can be expected from the Starshines?

About 260 per annum.

For Sure There Is Sunshine

Very thankful that our shipment of Certified Parent Stocks from SASSO of France came the day before, September 25. Day before Ondoy's wrath. Had we had been scheduled for the 26th flight, maybe flight had been cancelled by then. If the flight got through, maybe by the time we were able to clear Customs at 11am, the traffic and floodwater had deemed the roads closed?

This importation had been delayed already as there were clearances from France that had to be met and we had to reschedule hatching dates.

Now look at our new babies:


We have brought in two new strains, aside from our original redbrown, our naked necks. Now, we have a tricolored bird and the golden brown egg layers.


We will have them debut in six (6) months :)

One thing is sure, there will always be Sunshine.

Colorful Day

8:45am was the ETA, but my livestock broker said that barring any problems, he should be able to release about 11am.

Yes, our batch of Certified Parent Stocks from SASSO of France arrived today.

Since it was for call at 11am, I took time. Bank duties, had coffee at a leisurely pace etc. By a little after 9am, my broker calls and says that the SASSO colored chicks had been released! Surely I will credit Odi's good job, and the perfect working vibes we have with the French company :)

The vehicle to transport was there already, but I was set for 11am...."can you wait for me pls so I can see our new babies"?

After some clicks clicks, the chicks were on their way to their new farm. Chitchats with the other livestock brokers there as we were on the same flight with two other importers. Very showbiz talks about what's happening and what didn't happen weheheheh.

Decided to relax and spend the day with colors around me.. for prosperity. Prosperity for the shops at Podium ahahahahha.

We have new strains, in addition to our basic red, our naked necks. As I said, colorful :)

Can You Guess What's New?

Do you hear that on the Jollibee radio ads running now? They are introducing a new product and was teasing the listener if they can guess what it was. I like their ads and taglines. Bee happy.

We are bringing in new strains/products, to add to our present line of Sunshines. ADD, not change nor remove. It just shows we thought about our moves from the start and saw that right decisions were made. So no need to change....ADD yes. To give you choices, all of which are up to our standards.

From SASSO of France, again another right choice....we will be bringing you something new.

Can you guess what it is?

Lasang Native

I had been getting email and calls..."Is your Sunshines native chickens"?

That is the reason we used the tagline "LASANG NATIVE"...

Although the Sunshines taste like our native chickens, manok tagalog, bisaya manok, or whatever regional term we have for the Filipino native chickens....we don't, won't, nor claim that the Sunshines are OUR native chickens.

Why? Because, much as they really do taste like the natives, our Certified F1 Sunshine Chicks are from the Certified Parent Stocks that we import are from SASSO of France. We will not claim to the fame of OUR native chickens, nor will we disclaim the research and development of SASSO of France. SASSO is known in the free range chicken industry as the leader, and develops and maintains the strains of pure colored chicken farm breeds. They go through a natural selection for taste and preferences of the different regions in France and clients' requirements. We are proud to be carrying SASSO.

We studied and continue to study our Philippine conditions and market preferences and decided on which strains to bring in to comeup with what we offer to you as Sunshine Chicken. First we brought in the a heavy pure farm breed, that gives us the colorful Sunshines. We next reintroduced the Naked Necks that are sturdier under tropical conditions and have a thinner skin that gourmets prefer. We are now thinking of a new strain to add to our existing line :) All those, to satisfy the different growers' and farmers' needs and wants.

Naked Necks, TJ Of Baliuag Bulacan

I asked TJ 2weeks ago how his Sunshine naked necks were doing. "Maganda, kasi pangit sila" Brought a smile to my lips. Can't blame the description, because true, the naked necks are not the cutest chickens to see. As bald, day old chicks, maybe....but as adults...well look at it this way , they seem easier to slaughter :)

Louis of SASSO of France says that it is sturdier and will do better under our Philippine conditions. The skin of this strain is thin, and the trained tounges will know that it is better.

We have alloted our Naked Necks to our growers, who have seen the benefits over our regular full feathered ones. Sometimes we have some left and our Solraya stores carry it on retail.

Today, Zac Sarian revisits Baliuag, Bulacan. He had featured TJ several times in the past in the Agriculture Magazine of April2008, Manila Bulletin, Bannawag and Panorama. Time to listen to what TJ has to say. He has good comparisons as before he loaded with the naked necks, he was just through harvesting his full feathered ones. Also, he fostered some 300 chicks for a friend taken from another stock. So he was able to compare three batches.

Look at TJ's Feb22 batch of the new line of Sunshines. They were just supplemented with unmedicated feeds, left free to range on living grass...no antibiotics nor hormones. Not even vitamins nor probiotics.


TJ got a lot of interest going for the naked necks. Yes, true, the strain is sturdier...BUT then, TJ has always proven to do well with his wards.

Today at 6weeks...he is thinking about loading the same bald ones soon.

Ilocos Super Chicken

I was burried in paperwork when I decided to text Rene, one of our growers in Gen San. Then his text drifted to his watching Gov Savellano's project Ilocos Super Chicken on TV. "Hey, that's my chicks"..he said he knew, of course.

Ran to the TV and of course I saw the interview. Good one. Thank you to Ilocos Sur for promoting SASSO. No one else can claim now, that they are selling F1 from Certified Parent Stocks imported from SASSO of France. We can.

Again, SASSO is not a breed. It is a company in France that maintains and develops different strains of colored chickens, meant for free ranging.

We, Solraya Enterprises, import from SASSO of France. We branded our F1 production as Sunshine Chicken :)

Increased Production

Our production have increased starting this week and will be doubling up in the next couple of weeks.

Our 3rd batch of Certified Parent Stocks (2nd batch of SASSO of France) have started to give us production.

Why you ask, are we doubling up our output? Not really planned at this stage. Our 2nd batch and present breeders are already from SASSO of France. We were basing our egg production and fertility rate from our previous set of breeders. Of course from the onset the production of SASSO was far better, but we didn't anticipate that their fertility curve was far better than the 1st batch we had.

Everything fell into place. We have increased demand from our clients, and we have doubled our production.

Double output and we now have the naked necks!

When Are Fakes More Expensive?

Yesterday, Doc Rey came across a vendor of obviously fake SASSO chicks. Why obviously fake? Because Solraya, to date, is the only importer of Certified Parent Stocks from SASSO of France since we cemented talks in 2007. Even our competitor has to point to us as the only source of SASSO origins, in the Philippines.

Back to Doc Rey... He approached the chick vendor and asked what was being sold. The man replied SASSO, but said they were crossed. He was selling at PHP50 per chick! Doc Rey listened to him say that out of the number of eggs he sets in the incubator, he gets 75% hatchability. Not too bad you may say, huh? But wait....he continues that out of the 75% that hatches, 50% lives on day1. The number continues to dwindle during brooding stage.

That leaves him with about 37.5% of production at day1. No wonder he has to sell at PHP50. Do you think that is a fair price if not expensive? Considering that we are at PHP35....he is cheap!

Why will I say that he sells cheaply? The man doesn't have the economies of scale. He may just have 350-1000 heads. He spends a lot on feeds for such a poor production. Even if he grew his inbred chicks for meat production, he will lose money and time because of slow growth. Most importantly, he loses a lot on his expectations.

As I always say....IF it was profitable to cross breed and in breed, why will we be periodically importing Certified Parent Stocks? Why don't the big companies who are into the industrial chickens just inbreed? Who amongst the farms that inbred have sustained the business?

Are the fakes expensive or cheap? Wehehhe its like seeing the black dot or the white paper. Expensive for the buyer, but cheap price for the seller...that's the reality.

New Year, New Breeders, New Line, New Store....

Those translate to chaotic schedules for our team now! Oh, don't get us wrong...we aren't complaining. We are enjoying the roller coaster of juggling schedules. You wake up not knowing where you are, literally.

Some delays are for the best. Our printer was late in doing our calendars....it allowed us to include our new baby Vigan :)

By now I hope it is clear to all we are here for the long haul. We have imported periodically and have culled breeders to protect the industry. New lines for 2009 have been decided on and timetables have been set with SASSO of France.

Watch out for new areas in the business. We always reinvent ourselves for you.

Great Start

Today we thought was going to be a slow day, as we came to start the normal schedules for the weekend markets.

As I am typing this at 10:30, I know I will pack up by 12 noon. I don't know what made this a fast day. Did they want home cooked meals after the parties? They had been gifted and wanted to buy for their own now? They heard about it in social gatherings? All of the above :)

Doc Rey got two calls from two different radio stations for interview this morning. Both shows asked him to talk about what to expect for 2009 from Sunshine:

1) Naked necks from SASSO of France - sturdier and tastier line. The growers have asked for this line. We are now test hatching and may have it available end of January at the earliest.

2) Organika will get bigger - We will continue to source new and good natural products for you.

3) Nationwide - seminars and farm visits. Our commitment to sustainability is to teach and monitor.

4) Organikarts - Just toyed up with this yesterday. Make the Organika products readily available and convenient for most people. Carts....

Good to be up and about. Being available at the right time and proper places.

Naked Necks

This batch of Certified Parent Stocks are now mature and will be ready to give us back the naked necks. Our new addition to our Sunshine Chicks will be ready February.

After consultations with our growers and SASSO of France, we added the naked necks to our existing line. This is sturdier for the Philippine conditions. The gourmets say that this is better tasting as the skin is very thin.

This is part of our commitment to give you better products and marketing tools.

Time And Work

This morning, we found ourselves waking up at 8am! We are such morning people and so used to waking up at dawn to attend to various engagements. Are we too tired?

So many things are cropping up: opportunity for Shangri-la Mall booth (who will man it?), series of Northern Luzon seminars (almost daily in key cities), guestings, shows etc etc.

I thank the blessings that problem is scheduling orders, rather than finding buyers. We will be increasing our Parent Stocks for next order.

Thank you that we are seeking how to clone ourselves for time and manpower needs...rather than being idle and getting bored.

For all these, we are maintaining our commitment of giving you only certified F1 Sunshine Chicks to you. Our records of importation, periodically replacing our certified Parent Stocks from France, and visits by BAI to our farm is proof of our goal to give you quality.

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"!

Blood Testing

For the January 2008 batch, the testing was for the required local shipping permits. So they are able to monitor where the production goes.


This is our second accreditation, as the 1st batch is now culled. The BAI people were surprised that we culled in time, just like the big companies. We sold the culls at php55/kilo, priced just like the white chickens.

Talking about how far your buildings should go....ideally, 30 meters apart. Again the BAI was amazed at the distancing of our buildings. This is the view from the growing out of the 3rd batch. Looking across to the laying building, that houses the 2nd batch that now gives us our improved Sunshines.


For the July 2008, our 3rd batch, the testing is for the monitoring of the Parent Stocks.

Naked Necks coming up in January 2009. Our growers are equally excited.


Thank you again to Doc Arlene and Hermie for making that trip again.

Dressed Balls

Remember our stress balls? And the early egg drops?

That first batch of hatch, of our improved Sunshines were dressed and sold out fast :)

That hatch was a trial and even the raising was a "go see". Well, they lived up to make a debut at AFEX 2008.

All gone....watch out for new harvests.