WITH more people being fond of hot and spicy food, restaurants in the city are in need of chili suppliers who could meet their demand.
One of the chili suppliers in the city is the Patchoo’s Chili Ginger Products owned by 39-year-old farmer Erman Sabia. The business has been known for their organic products such as herbal tea powder, chili-infused vinegar or sinamak, hot sauce in different varieties, and chili powder also in different varieties.
Erman’s fondness for hot and spicy food pressed him to plant native chili peppers. It is easy to grow and can be harvested after four months.
When he went to Saudi Arabia to become an overseas Filipino worker (OFW), he discovered different varieties of chili peppers so he collected seeds and planted these when he came back to the Philippines. He decided to market vinegar with his own chili peppers when he found out a different heat level of these products.
“When we joined a bazaar to showcase our products, it was really challenging. We heard comments questioning our products, since the taste is really new to the public. Some say the heat level could even kill,” Erman said.
“Despite the challenge in marketing our products, my wife Eden and I, continued to join bazaars and communities with the same desire, hopeful to become known to the Dabawenyos. That way, we were able to put up a group of chili growers and the flow of market slowly become smooth and easy,” he added.
However, chili growers in the city admitted that one chili grower could not possibly meet the growing demand of the market. In order to thrive, chili growers market as one through the Mindanao Chili Growers and Processors Cooperative, which started in 2017 aiming to help growers, hobbyists, and farmers to have ensured market access.
“The business will not stand for almost three years now maybe if we lack determination, patience and passion. All the negative feedback we had, we used it to further improve our products,” Erman said.
He said they are currently focusing on chili powders since it always has bulk of orders from restaurants and manufacturers in the city.
At present, Patchoo’s has been supplying three restaurants with chili powders and hot sauce. Their products are constantly available at the lower ground floor of Gaisano Mall-Bajada branch along with other Mindanao Chili Growers products, at the Rizal Park every Thursday and Friday, and even through Shoppee.com, an online shopping site.