YAKI Herbal Laboratory, the first and biggest Mindanao-based company that is into manufacturing of pharmaceutical products. It is an epitome of a Mindanaoan’s entrepreneurial skill and courage to join and grab a modest share of a market dominated by multi-national corporations.
Based in the city of Kidapawan in Cotabato Province in Southern Philippines, the firm has, since 2008, been granted permit by the Bureau of Food and Drugs and Cosmetics (BFADC), now Food and Drug Administration, to manufacture herbal-based pharmaceutical products like the Yaki Oil Liniment, Yaki Beauty Care Soap, Yaki Baby Soap, Hermosa Kojic Whitening Soap, Kiddie Yaki Syrup and Yaki Capsule.
It first manually produced the Yaki Liniment Oil as a backyard project using very crude indigenous production materials with a meagre investment of only P50,000.00, which the lady-owner earned from being a broadcast journalist and insurance underwriter at the same time.
Owned by a Mandaya (one of the 13 major ethno-linguistic groups of Mindanao), who hails from the Caraga, Davao Oriental and earned her high school diploma and college degree as a working student, the company, which started to peddle its products in few parts of the cities of Davao, Zamboanga and Cotabato, is now a firm that is in transition from a single proprietorship to a corporation.