THE ASSOCIATION OF Negros Producers (ANP) is run by a bevy of strong-willed women?famously privileged, glamorous and captains of their own businesses.

How could an all-women powerhouse not shatter to pieces from internal combustion? Isn?t there a chink in its armor of porcelain caused by friction and constant bickering, or a bitter feuding kept underneath a veneer of gentility? None at all, from all appearances.

That the ANP is still around is one of the beautiful stories of this 20-year-old institution.

?We work as a team,? insists ANP president Mary Ann Feria Colmenares. And she can very well speak for the other board members: Cristina Borromeo Gaston, Joji Tambanillo Locsin, Cathy Sicangco Hagad, Cris Nemenzo Villacin and Millie Locsin Kilayko.

?We are a council dedicated to helping our member-entrepreneurs to grow and become more successful. We couldn?t do that if we are always clashing, and sparks fly at every discussion. We?re too cool for that. We don?t want to lose sight of what we are here for in this association.?

Glamour

Put another way: losing one?s cool, from throwing tempers or pulling one another?s hair, is not glamorous. And glamour is the essence of the products of ANP: the glamour of good food, well-designed and sturdily crafted furniture, stylish gifts and houseware, fashionable clothes and accessories.

Smartly getting their act together, ANP members will hold the 23rd Negros Trade Fair, Sept. 30-Oct. 5, at the Rockwell Tent in Makati. On the theme ?With the Times,? ANP seeks to address the present economic uncertainties by getting out of its comfort zone, that is, by expanding its product portfolio, developing new members and strengthening its linkages.

?We have identified the sunshine industry,? says Colmenares, ?and we?ve proven ourselves good at pushing our products. Now, we have to make ourselves more relevant to our community and to the times. There are so many things to do.?

Lifestyle items

New this year at the Negros Trade Fair is the Corporate Lifestyle Gifts Showcase.

Colmenares promises that their corporate giveaways will be nothing like the mass-produced thingamajigs and gadgets from discount stores in Hong Kong, but ?more like lifestyle items, thoughtfully designed, functional, and with a touch of the indigenous.?

They have invited top corporations in Manila to see for themselves how they can make their gift-giving more meaningful and memorable.

The trade fair will also become a platform for the tourism marketing efforts of the province of Negros in partnership with the Negros Island Tourism, Inc. (NITI), whose campaign, ?Adventure Negros,? highlights the many dive spots in Negros Occidental, its proliferating cycling clubs, and the allure of Mount Kanlaon for mountaineers.

?We believe that trade and tourism work together,? says Colmenares, whose association sits in the board of NITI.

A big step for ANP in its desire to make the trade fair truly ?holistic? is the inclusion of fresh organic-farm produce. Negros today is in the forefront of organic farming, now ?a necessity more than a trend,? according to a farmer from Victorias, one of the bigger members of the 35-strong Negros Occidental Organic Producers and Retailers Association.

The organic farmers will be selling their vegetables, black rice, rainforest coffee and such others, that have become integral to a healthy, also upscale, lifestyle.

To reach out to more members, ANP has launched Expo 2008, in which 20 new entrepreneurs are taken under its wings and mentored by established members.

?We teach them how to improve the quality of their products,? says Colmenares, ?we give them seminars on exporting, marketing, networking, servicing, collection, and so forth. It?s like Business 101. We hope that they will inject new blood into the association.?

Colmenares manages Anaware, the ceramic company founded by her mother Anita Feria who years back did an acclaimed first: limited-number plates printed with works of artists like Joya, Ang Kiukok, Edsel Moscoso, Rock Drilon.

Colmenares also runs a quaintly charming store called Handmade Gallery in Bacolod, which carries beautifully crafted pieces of wood, ceramic, bamboo, stone, grass and other native materials, coming from the country?s islands and other Asian countries.

Gaston is well-known for her lamps and tabletop items with innovative designs and highly creative use of native materials (her trademark: coconut twigs), which have found their way to opulent homes in Europe and the United States.

Former ANP president and an architect by profession, she started out doing nightgowns and pillowcases before she turned to crafts, her true passion. Her company is called Hacienda Crafts, an allusion to the community of farmhands that help her make the furnishings and decor that are evocative of the old hacienda lifestyle?with a modern twist.

Fluid and elegant

Hagad, who finished architecture from the University of Santo Tomas and furniture design from San Diego, California, set up with her husband Art Energy which does fluid and elegant furniture and furnishings.

Her design philosophy: ?It is an expression of individuality. It reflects my culture, my training and my design values.?

Her distinctive look: ?simple, not necessarily minimal.? Proofs of the integrity of her design were the awards she won?the Balawan Awards from ANP and the Bagong Sibol Award from the Chamber of the Furniture Industries of the Philippines.

She has great confidence in her market: ?The local market is good if you know how to tap into it.?

Locsin takes a nito vine, a banana stalk, even a lowly stem of cassava and turns them into stunning and ingenious vases, trays, small tables and other types of home furnishings; and then she laminates them so that they could last a long time.

Her products instantly bring to one?s home or workplace the warmth and charm of the tropics. Tumandok Crafts Industries enjoys a big export market, but Joji sees it as ?a social enterprise responsive to the needs of the people of Negros.?

Villacin, of Crisvil Creations, maker of fashion jewelry from semiprecious stones and glass and indigenous materials, is a story of courage. She was diagnosed with cancer 15 years ago; chemo sessions, radiation treatments, two operations and piling debts compelled her family to sell their house, two cars and furniture. And then her husband died after suffering from cancer for six months.

?Through ANP, I managed to get back on my feet, to regain my dignity and self-worth,? she says. ?They helped me develop my business skills and the market for my products.?

She hopes to be able to expand her jewelry business to other cities in the country.

Kilayko, of Casa Carmela Kitchen, will go down in Bacolod?s culinary history as the reinventor of the traditional piaya.

Reinventor

Since she introduced the thin and crisp version two years ago, the piaya has been undergoing new twists: the piaquillos rolled like barquillos, the cocktail piaya crackers seasoned with chicken and chives or pesto, the après-dinner piaya with dark chocolate laced with mint.

She recently opened, with partner Tima Lacson, the Sweet Greens Restaurant that offers dishes from ?old family recipes? and, yes, her own inventions.

These women have assiduously continued the work of the 15 pioneering women who organized the House of Negros (precursor of ANP) at a time 23 years ago when the plunge of sugar prices in the world market brought untold suffering to the province.

The women of Negros turned this misfortune into an opportunity, and a new entrepreneurial spirit emerged.

Born to privilege and brought up in the finer ways of life, wrote that same ANP member, ?they now turned their homegrown skills in hitherto economically insignificant pursuits into start-up handicraft and food businesses, teaching the wives of farm workers in these new skills and crafts and imploring friends in Manila to buy the products of these workers to help avert starvation in Negros. From these modest beginnings grew a manufacturing and exporting powerhouse,? Colmenares said.