From Fallen Mangoes to Award-Winning Products: Mindoro entrepreneur turns fruits into all-natural wine and vinegar

Felicitas Baldonado, a 65-year-old entrepreneur from San Jose, Occidental Mindoro, has built a thriving business by transforming fresh, local fruits—including dragon fruit, soursop, guava, grapes, cucumber, mango, and more—into all-natural vinegar and fruit wines. What sets her creations apart is her unwavering commitment to using 100% natural ingredients with no added preservatives.

Her journey began with a simple observation: ripe mangoes in her yard were falling and rotting, often being stepped on by children at play. This sparked an idea after she attended a church seminar on vinegar-making led by a pastor. Inspired, she collected the fallen mangoes, placed them in a tumbler, and let them ferment for six months. The result was a perfectly balanced, homemade mango vinegar—her first successful product.

Motivated by this initial triumph, Felicitas partnered with a food processor friend to begin crafting wine from various fruits. In 2019, she formally launched her brand, JJS Food Product—named after her grandchildren—and introduced a wider range of offerings, including concentrated juices and alamang (fermented shrimp paste), which quickly gained popularity.

Her business gained momentum in 2021 when she began showcasing her products at trade fairs. Her creativity and perseverance paid off the following year when she received the Innovative Enterprise of the Year award. She continued to expand her line by adding pickled delicacies such as papaya, bitter gourd, onions, and chili, all while exploring new fruit-based product ideas.

JJS Food Product now produces around 50 bottles of wine and vinegar daily, with a team of four regular and five seasonal employees. Felicitas ensures her workers are fairly compensated and shares additional incentives when the business thrives.

She also credits CARD Bank as a key partner in her growth. Starting with a modest PHP 5,000 loan in 2009 for a small ukay-ukay (second-hand clothing) venture, she has since taken out a PHP 200,000 loan to scale up her food production.

“Every day brings new opportunities; what’s important is to grab them and transform them into something extraordinary that would capture the attention of your target customers,” Felicitas shared.

Looking ahead, she hopes to bring her proudly natural products to larger grocery chains and expand her reach beyond Mindoro, introducing more Filipinos to her healthy, homegrown creations.