Regional Picks

Hard-to-get food products are now within reach as a young startup brings edible finds from the provinces to the capital.

- Janica Balasolla

The name is almost a dead giveaway.

While it hints at provincial bestsellers, the reference is far and wide, alluding to anything from songs to tourist attractions. In this case, Probinsya Hits refers to food. The social enterprise of siblings Scott and Vanessa Abella distributes homemade goods from small family businesses in Visayas and Mindanao to Metro Manila.

Operations started in 2015 but the product lineup was only officially launched in October 2016. “Sometimes, for small businesses, the way to expand is usually to go to an area where there’s more buying power, and here in the Philippines, it’s really in Metro Manila.”

To date, Probinsya Hits distributes bottled seafood like bangus belly sardines in original and spicy flavors from Cebu and gourmet tuyo from Capiz as well as wine variants like bignay and duhat from Negros and pineapple white wine from Cebu.