The relatively short shelf life of buko pies and its variants, has long been a major obstacle to the distribution of the pies to a much wider area (and further away from its home base, Los Banos). Without refrigeration, the freshly baked pie will have a shelf life of at most three days, and if placed in a refrigerator, for about a week. Frozen pies will last for more than a month.

Frozen pies appeared to be the best alternative. But, freezing pies in ordinary freezer poses some problem. The frozen pie, when heated in a microwave oven tended to become soggy due to the melting of the globules of ice formed inside the pies.

But no more. With the application of the blast freezing technology, wherein very cold air (-30 to –40 degrees C) is blown at the pies, the formation of ice globules can no longer take place. This rapid freezing of the pies (for about one and half to two hours) increases the shelf life of the pies to about 12 months. And when the frozen pie is placed in a microwave oven, the pie will taste and appear like a freshly baked pie.

A financial grant of from the SET-UP program of DOST enabled Lety’s to acquire the equipment and facilities needed in the expansion of production capablities of the business. Major equipments acquired include a Blast Freezer, Cold Storage system, a Vacuum Packaging System, large-scale oven, interplanetary mixer, and various steel baking tables. With such facilities, the “blast-freezing procedure” for buko pie and buko pies variants was finalized.

The very crude packaging of the pies has also been changed. The “new” packaging, in terms of appearance and design, box materials, and pie wrappers, will make the pie more competitive with both local and foreign brands.

With the increase in production capabilities (and the improved packaging of the product), aggressive promotion and marketing was undertaken. Thus, Lety’s attended a number of food trade fairs, opened several outlets in Metro Manila and adjacent municipality, became more cooperative with media (TV and print, both local and foreign), and institutionalized the “open house” policy, whereby the production area (and briefings on baking procedures) were offered to the public (so that they will be aware of how the products are produced under top conditions).

The blast frozen pies were showcased at the Asean Food and Beverage Exhibition in Tokyo (sponsored by the Asean-Japan Center) last December 2003 to April 2004. Lety’s Buko Pie was selected by the Center to be one of four SMEs from the Philippines to join said exhibition. As an initial result, one export consolidator began including frozen buko pie and variants in their monthly shipment of frozen goods from the Philippines to Tokyo (about 500 to 800 pies per month, starting April 2004).

At the domestic (local) level, blast frozen pies are becoming popular with expatriates and “Balik Bayans” returning home abroad. The advantage of bringing home frozen pies is that said pies can be included in the baggage that are checked-in in the plane. Even with ordinary wrapping (by newspapers or clothing), the pies when included in the baggage will not easily thaw for a period of say, 24 hours traveling time by plane. However, when you chose the freshly baked pies, you have to hand-carry them, which will be very inconvenient for most travellers.

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