Village molds money out of mud

Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
 | May 30, 2004 | Copyright
(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Byline: Mei Magsino, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau
SAN JUAN, Batangas-On the road to the famed white sand beaches of this town, local and foreign tourists first make stops along the highway in Barangay Palahanan, where the roadsides lined with stores full of pots in various designs, sizes, colors and styles never fail to attract buyers.
But what these visitors do not know is that the pots come from mud from a far away creek and has sustained many lives for three decades.
"For more than 30 years, the pottery business in this village, which has turned into an industry, has sent so many children to school, raised families and kept the food on our tables," says Enrique Carandang, owner of the biggest pottery business in this town. "And everyday, our potters mold the pots from the clay we get from the mud of the creeks in Barangay Libato."
The creeks of Libato, according to him, are located at the eastern side of San Juan and has been their source of the clay material used for making pots for so many years.
Carandang, now in his 60s, started the pottery business 30 years ago when he used to sell other potters' pots from San Juan to his clients in Batangas, Manila and nearby provinces.
Innovation
"In 1976, a client from Pampanga taught me how to mass produce pots. That time, pot-making was done by hand and production was small and slow," Carandang said. "What we did was just to find better and faster ways to produce the pots."
From the sales he generated, Carandang was able to buy an electric pot molder that sped up the process of pot-making.
"That time, I was the only one who had that technology here in San Juan," Carandang says. "But even with that technology, grinding the mud to turn it into fine clay was still done manually."
At that time grinding the clay required two to five men stomping on the mud to crack and grind it into fine clay. These took hours and turned the clay grinders' feet into callous-filled and thick-skinned heels and toes.
"But now, thanks to technology, we have an electric clay grinder that does the job," Carandang says.
Same principles
Carandang's wife, Emilia, 63, has been helping in the business for the last three decades, too. "The principles of pot-making has never changed. Technology just added to the speed and quantity but the process is still the same."
According to Emilia, the process starts by collecting mud from the creeks of Libato, grinding this into clay, then molding this via an electric pot molder which churns 80 pots per hour. When the molded clay takes shape, it is then polished for an even finish, then dried in the open air.
"After it's dried in the open, we then take it into the kiln to harden. Up to now, we still use the pugon or the big stone oven to dry out the pots. And after the allotted time in the kiln, we get the finished product," Emilia says.
According to Emilia, the peak season for the sale of the pots is during the summer season when tourists who are on their way to San Juan's beaches would stop on the way and buy loads of pots.
"The pots are always in demand and there are always customers who come to us to buy our pots," she says. "But slow sales occur in June or July during the opening of the schools."
Emilia says their biggest customers don't come from Batangas province alone as they have regular customers from Antipolo's garden businesses, while orders come from as far as Daet, Camarines Sur, Mindoro island provinces and Marinduque.
Customers in far provinces would regularly call them and her husband would deliver the pots. In Batangas, the biggest buyers come from the garden farms of Batangas City, Lipa City and San Jose town.
According to Emilia, their relatives have also joined the business and some have set up their own pottery businesses. "We were able to help our nephews and nieces finish their studies. We were also able to remodel our home, buy our delivery jeep and buy our car. All of them from the pottery business."
The pottery business grew even into the neighborhood so that the entire Barangay Palahanan became engaged in the pottery trade, which has become a village industry.
Function and art
When the plastic plant boxes and pots flooded the market and threatened the clay pot business, Carandang says the clay pots of San Juan were not affected.
"People would always prefer the clay pots because our clients say the cool temperature helps in the growth of the plants, which the plastic ones don't do," he says.
Although Carandang admits that clay pots are heavier compared with the plastic ones, he says the potters of San Juan have tried better strategies to keep the business alive.
"Some of us in the pottery business have started creating artistic designs for the pots and there are also potters who tried to glaze their pots. That has turned the ordinary clay pots that used to be planted with decorative plants into a decoration itself," Carandang says. "But glazing requires more intense heat and the process is really expensive."
He says what the town's pottery industry needs now is to create a niche and market for the glazed clay pots.
Mini-pots
Another innovation that the San Juan potters implemented are the mini-falls and fountains that use small clay pots. These command higher prices when sold at the malls as they serve not only as decoration but give a therapeutic effect to people.
Monica Aguba, 65, another potter whose shop was near Carandang's store, has been making pottery art for more than three years now.
In front of her shop are mini-falls and fountains which use the small pots that are also made in San Juan.
"The mini-falls and fountains design gave the potters here another option on how to market the pots," Aguba says. "We've been in the business since 1960 but it was only recently that we got a higher price for the small pots because we use them in the mini-falls and fountains."
According to her, the mini-falls and fountains sell for P700 to P3,000, depending on the size and design of the pots.
Same price
But having the entire village in the same business has its downside, too. According to Carandang, they have never been able to raise the prices of the pots for the last decade.
"The prices of our pots have remained the same since the last decade. Even if the electricity bill has been raised and the gasoline price has hiked up, the prices of our pots have remained cheap. That's because nobody wants to raise the price," he says.
Carandang says competition among the potters, who have grown to more than 50 in their barangay alone, has become so stiff that most of them would lower the price just to sell.
"If anybody here tries to raise the prices, nobody follows. And what happens next? People will buy only from the shops with the lower prices and nobody will buy the pots that cost more," Carandang says. "No matter how good the quality of our pots is, people would always prefer the cheapest price. And that hurts the business," he adds.
To solve that dilemma, he says, he bought the land near the creek at Libato where they get the clay. That way, he does not have to pay the landowner for every truckload of clay he collects.
"Pottery is a good business if you know how to manage it right and reduce the overhead expenses," Carandang says. "We have survived this long, we should know how to cut the expenses and add to the profit without borrowing money from anybody."
"From mud, we turn the clay into pots that bring us money. But it shouldn't end there," he says. "You have to check out all the possible options that will help the business grow."