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Mama Sita team visits Saipan
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Posted on May 08 2006
Representatives of Mama Sita, a popular Philippine brand of sauces and mixes, are currently on a promo-tour on Saipan, holding cooking demonstrations and food tasting at local retail stores.
Saipan is the second leg of the team’s monthlong trip to the Pacific Rim—Guam, Saipan, and Hawaii.
“We aim to bring the authentic flavors of Philippine cuisine to international attention,” said Mama Sita export sales manager Jane Rubinos-Taguinod.
Taguinod, together with Research and Development manager Rachel Lapus, arrived on Saipan last weekend from Guam.
They are leaving Saipan for Hawaii this Thursday.
On Saipan, the duo held their promo activities in partnership with the Joeten stores.
“Joeten is our pilot project,” said Taguinod.
If the campaign proves successful, Mama Sita might do another marketing plan for Joeten, she said. This means more promos and marketing assistance to be provided the local store.
Mama Sita products have been available in Saipan outlets since about 1995.
Taguinod said that export demand to the region increased by 50 percent over this period. The most popular items are Mama Sita’s barbecue marinade, oyster sauce, caldereta mix, and sinigang mix.
Taguinod said Mama Sita products have gained a wide following because they are “safe, conveniently packed, and flavorful.”
She said these products also use mainly natural ingredients.
“We make sure it’s natural,” she said.
She said the products use very minimal preservative—about .01 percent—just to ensure long shelf life.
The brand is named after Teresita Reyes, a well-traveled woman who got the business idea after having seen Filipino children abroad “being deprived of the pleasures inherent in Filipino cooking.”
She thought of packaging easy-to-use mixes and sauces in attractive packets and bottles.
“And why not make them all natural and preservative-free so that peoples of other cultures would embrace them as well?” she had suggested to her daughter Clara Reyes Lapus.
In 1980, Clara and her husband Bart set up Marigold Commodities Corp. to manufacture Mama Sita products.
Mama Sita, whose face is immortalized in the products’ labels, died in 1998.
