Have you ever been curious about that small shop in Gaston Park called Otop.PH - Ginamâ? I know I was. I’ve never been inside the place to see what it sells or what kind of food products you can buy that you can munch-on yourselves or bring home as souvenirs to remember Cagayan de Oro by.
Ginamâ means something made with great care and attention and aims to promote local products of Northern Mindanao nationwide as well as in the international stage. It is the hard-earned fruit of longtime nurturing by cooperation among the City Government, the Department of Trade and Industry, and local community of Micro, Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (MSMEs) from this city and neighboring municipalities in Northern Mindanao and has been adopted as a One-Town-One-Product Philippines Hub (Otop.PH) by the trade department.
Otop.PH is a market access platform that transforms pasalubong centers into stores and spaces where products can be incubated and marketed.
I went on and purchase a few products myself because a curiosity sparked when they held an event where they featured coffee products from different parts of Misamis Oriental namely from Gingoog, Claveria and this city.
You can also find local products and native trinkets in Ginamâ such as native bags, accessories among others. You can also find frozen meat products, Chicharons by Crunchy Time; Spanish Sardines and Palapa by Aarmen; Chayote Pickles by Vicky’s; bulad, dried uyap and bagoong by Reane’s; a variety of peanuts from Tropic’s Best; peanut butters, honey, coffee beans, pastillas, sauces, chips, tableya and many more.
I would like to see snack products from Otop.PH – Ginamâ in snack bars in cinemas so that people could also try as an alternative to popcorn. I would like to encourage our readers to visit Ginamâ and see some of our local producers and to support their products.
Good news for coffee lovers out there as Ginamâ will soon have its own mini coffee shop featuring local coffee beans from nearby provinces.
