Meet the mother-and-son team championing Filipino carabao farmers with their Philippine-made gelato
It is one thing to be supportive of an industry in order to uplift the lives of the people behind it, but the business of making it a profitable enterprise should follow with a high-quality and marketable product. When these two things come together, success is often imminent.
Karabella Dairy Ice Cream’s Jan Buenaflor shares how her involvement with the company went from silent capitalist to highly instrumental in its growth. “Alfred Ng and I are long time business partners in the agribusiness industry, supplying feeds and veterinary medicines to the swine and poultry sector. I learned about Karabella through Alfred’s daughter, who was then working inside the GK Enchanted Farm. I was just an investor then, and in 2017 the original group wanted to part ways and continue with their careers,” she explains. “I was asked what I want to do with my investment. Should we just sell the machines and get the money back? I said ‘no,’ we can continue the business because we have the resources, we can continue helping the community they originally started with.”
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This industry is the Cavite Carabao Farmers Cooperative as well as various local artisans and SMEs that they have tapped to provide them with the proudly local ingredients they prefer. Carabao milk is known to be more volatile than cow’s milk, but its inherent richness gives Karabella’s gelato that coveted thick and velvety texture.
Jan volunteered her son EJ to take over as its main production and operations officer which he took on with much fervour. The “passionate ice cream eater” shares his journey and why it was an easy transition: “I initially worked in a bank when my mom asked me to join them. I gladly accepted since it has always been my childhood passion to taste and eat different kinds of ice cream. After that, I trained and studied gelato-making under the guidance of Italian chefs and other chefs who are well known in the industry. Honestly, I didn’t have a hard time learning and making gelato because I really love ice cream and other frozen treats to begin with. I really love what I do.”
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