‘People are eating more pizzas during lockdown’

TRANSPORT network company Grab has seen a surge in food deliveries since the community quarantines imposed by the government to contain the spread of Covid-19.

Grab Philippines Country Manager Ronald Roda told the Businessmirror, “Grabfood has seen an increase in demand of up to three to four times during certain periods of the quarantine.”

he added, “We have also observed that basket size orders of our eaters have grown to up to 20 percent since the beginning of the lockdown.” Popular merchants are those in the fast food business, and those selling pizza, chicken, coffee, and milk tea.

Also, “We’ve seen tremendous growth on the small and medium business side, as opposed to the big restaurants .... even prior to the lockdown, we’ve seen a number of small merchant and restaurant owners grow their business through the help of Grabfood. An example of this would be the ‘jollijeeps’ that you can find on the Grab app,” explained Roda.

Grabfood is supporting the Department of Tourism’s (DOT’S) Kain Na! Food and Travel Festival by making available participating restaurants and food businesses on its mobile application. It has rolled out a Kain Na tile on the homepage of the Grab app to increase the discoverability of partner merchants. In her opening remarks at Tuesday’s virtual launch of Kain Na, which features coffee, tea, and chocolate, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat said, “I have been inspired about how communities have rallied together around food during the pandemic. From posting quarantine cooking videos that celebrate our culinary heritage, to donating meals to our frontliners, and supporting farmers, small entrepreneurs and restaurants by ordering for home delivery. People have found ways to keep livelihoods and the morale of our people alive. And food has been at the center of all of this. This festival recognizes the spirit of Filipino hospitality in the way we eat.”

The food festival from September 15 to 18 held in partnership with Ayala Malls, has gone virtual to be able to reach a wider audience. “We have crafted this year’s program to be responsive to the needs of our stakeholders. Kain Na 2020 endeavors to prepare our stakeholders for the transition to the new normal,” she added.

Food aggregator Zomato will also highlight Kain Na! in their Collections feature. “So we will be basically promoting the restaurants which are part of the DOT network, and through those restaurants, we’ll be promoting the overall festival as well,” said Zomato Philippines Sales head Anurag Verma. “So if you go into our platform, you can see different advertising assets which are communicating different activities of Kain Na. We will be using our social media handles as well to promote this festival…for this month.”

Virtual symposiums during the ongoing Food Tourism exchange will feature some of the most prominent chocolatiers, inspiring coffee entrepreneurs, and new and relaxing tea experiences around the country.

One of the key features this year is the Kain Na! Trading Post, an online store featuring Filipino products, which will go live at www.kainnastore.com for one month.

Also, online learning modules will offer muchneeded e-commerce training for food and farm tourism stakeholders and other micro, small and medium enterprises, in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry’s CTRL+BIZ Reboot Now program with the help of Google, Facebook, Zomato, eat In, Grabfood, Gcash, Air21, and Lazada.

For another, Food Tourism 101 features Chef Margarita Fores, food blogger JJ Yulo, food tour guide Ivan Man Dy, and Michelle Cruz of Klook, who will share their memorable experiences from food walks, market tours, foodie hotspots, and other inspiring food tourism anecdotes.

“Kain Na! is a celebration of our heritage and culture. We are glad to share this opportunity for the past two years with the Department of Tourism, as we work together in promoting our country for both local and international tourism,” said Ayala Malls President Jennylle Tupaz.

To further promote the project, Guide to the Philippines [LIVE LINK to https://bit.ly/2fxkyvr] published an extensive guide on must-try tsokolate, kape, and tsaa binges around the country.