The Zamboanga Rabbit Meat Producers Association (ZRMPA) opened here on Saturday an eatery that serves as the group’s outlet to introduce its product.

The eatery is at the residence of Ariel Reyes, ZRMPA secretary, in Sitio Logoy Grande, Barangay Talon-Talon at the back of the Talon-Talon Elementary School.

“We are eyeing to open a restaurant but since the association has no enough funds, we decided to start a business by opening up an eatery,” said Efren Arañez Jr., ZRMPA board of director, in an interview.

“Each of the members chipped in PHP500 to start (the) business. We are lucky since we are given a space free of charge,” he added.

Arañez said they have yet to slowly introduce rabbit meat as the Zamboangueños are not yet accustomed to eating rabbit dishes.

The ZRMPA, which was organized last month, has 40 members, mostly rabbit raisers.

After the opening of the outlet, the members of the association even went on a house-to-house distribution in Barangay Talon-Talon to introduce rabbit dishes to the public.

The rabbit dishes included rabbitchon (roasted rabbit), sisig, Bicol express, fried rabbit, satti, kaldereta, kulma, papait, among others.

Jericho Bustamante, ZRMPA president, said they ventured into the business of rabbit dishes to offer an alternative source of meat, which is cheaper compared to pork and beef.

Meanwhile, Arañez encouraged their members to schedule the free food distribution in their respective barangay for the people to taste the meat.

“We have to come up with a campaign strategy to introduce our product to the public,” he added. (PNA)