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OFWs Invest In Organic Farm
By Zac B. Sarian
February 8, 2013, 4:11pm


SWEET CORN IN A GREENHOUSE – Ronald Costales of Costales Nature Farms will do everything if only to meet the demand of his customers. For instance, a big distributor of organic food products needs a year-round supply of sweet corn. So what did he do? ...
Foreign investors, particularly OFWs or overseas Filipino workers, are getting interested in partnering with Ronald Costales of the Costales Nature Farms in Majayjay, Laguna.

Perhaps, after reading about his successful operation of his organic farm, people with money to invest are only too eager to be a part of his organic farm business.

Ronald has come up with a scheme that is attractive enough because the investor can expect to receive a dividend in just a matter of weeks or a few months.

First to make an investment in Ronald’s project is an engineer who is working in Africa, Jayson Javier. We first heard from Javier when he sent us a message saying that he is the first investor to put his money in the Costales Nature Farms after reading about him in our blog.

At first we didn’t bother to inquire about the scheme. But last month, we inquired from Ronald just how the partnership with the investor works. And this is what we have gathered.

The investor finances the building of a greenhouse where the high-value crops that Costales produces are grown. These include all the vegetables, culinary herbs and other high-value crops that can be grown in the greenhouse. Costales had really wanted to have partners because it costs a lot of money to build a greenhouse. Having greenhouses has a lot of advantages. He can grow his favorite crops throughout the year, assuring his customers year-round availability of his produce.

In the case of Javier, he invested P420,000 for the construction of a 300-sq.m. greenhouse in February 2012. By March, it was ready for planting. Ronald planted 480 hills of Japanese cucumber which produced fruits in 30 days after transplanting the seedlings.

The 480 plants gave an average of 1.5 kilos per hill so the crop yielded 720 kilos that sold for P100 per kilo or P72,000 for the whole harvest. The cost of production was about P25,000. This was deducted from the gross sales and the remaining amount of P47,000 was shared equally between Javier and Costales.

After resting the planting beds for a few weeks, the next crop of French beans was planted on May 17 while the last harvest was on July 15. The price of the beans was quite good at P250 per kilo. In this second crop, they netted about P17,000 each.

The succeeding crops which were harvested in just a few weeks were similarly profitable. The third crop was lettuce which was harvested 30 days after transplanting. Javier and Costales had also a share of P17,000 each.

In the fourth cropping, Costales went back to French beans which is a legume that could enrich the soil. Again, the partners made about the usual dividend each.

As of January 27, 2013, the fifth cropping is in progress. The crop is Japanese cucumber and Costales is expecting it to be profitable also.

It did not take long for other investors from abroad to notice the investment scheme offered by Costales. A medical doctor from Sacramento, California, Dr. Aloy Llaguno, has invested P2.8 million for the construction of two greenhouses of 1,000 sq.m. each. The greenhouses are currently used for growing different high-value crops, including sweet corn.

Of course, there are also local investors who have joined in constructing their own greenhouses at the Costales farm. One of them is Jojo Chua, an owner of a hardware store. He invested P500,000 for a greenhouse covering 400 square meters. After Jojo received his first dividend, his son also invested his own money in another greenhouse.

Today, investors have built a total of 18 greenhouses. There is no more space for additional greenhouses in the 5-hectare property. Because there is no more room for greenhouses, three investors have invested their money in what Ronald calls “Villas.” These are actually lodging facilities where visitors who want to stay overnight can stay.

Some interested investors have been asking him what would be next that they could invest in. Maybe, Ronald says, they could invest in a training school devoted to organic farming. There seems to be endless ideas that are brewing in Costales’ head. And we will not be surprised if that training institute in organic farming will become a reality sooner than we think.

The customers are also very happy that Costales now has the facilities to produce all the supplies they need. One big distributor of organic foods has provided him P2.8 million to build a modern packing house that will further assure the quality of his produce. This client has priority to buy all that he needs from him.

Meantime, clients from Visayas and Mindanao have also been ordering some of his products. Of course, Ronald is very happy about the developments he has been reaping.

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