DAVAO-MADE Arkadyo Pepper Sauce may be considered the hottest chili sauce in the city, spicing up any kind of food in the household. But its successful journey has spices of its own.
Middle East-based Davaoeno electrical engineer Russell Servillon resigned from his job to pursue farming, a calling he finally heeded after years of feeling uninspired with his civil works abroad.
In his farm in Bansalan, Davao del Sur, he began with growing ginger, endured it for 3 years and gave up because of unfavorable circumstances.
“Lisod kaayo I-market. Naloko ko sa buyer tapos nine months pa siya maharvest (It was difficult to market, I was also scammed by a buyer and it also takes nine months before you can harvest),” Russell said.
He also tried vermicasting and failed again. He was frustrated because he wanted to establish a business he can pass on to his family, especially his children.
Until, he saw his resilient chili plant, a labuyo (Capsicum frutescens) that has been there for five years and has silently witnessed his failed attempts.
“Nagaisip ko og gamay ang gasto, mahal ang baligya, gamay og maintenance, ang sili ang nasulod sa akong utok (I was thinking of a business that requires lower capital and maintenance but can be sold on a high price),” Servillon enthused.
It fired up his interest in studying chili and confirmed how resilient they can be. He was further drawn to the Carolina Reaper (Capsicum chinense); a variety originally grown in Western America and is considered as the hottest chili pepper by the Guinness Book of World Record.
From there, he asked for seeds from his friend who lived in America and sowed them in an almost 1-hectare portion of his 4.5-hectare farmland.
He said while there are hobbyists in the city growing varieties of chili, he was the only one cultivating it on a farm.
“Naa may uban hobbyist pud nga nagatanom unya mahal man pud ang baligya. So nagtanom kog daghan. Mas makatipid man ko kung akoa ang tanom nga sili kaysa sa magpalit ko (There are hobbyists that plant chili but sells them at a high price. So, I planted more on my own because I can save more than buy from others),” he said.
He was so inspired and expanded his chili business. He began experimenting processing them into a sauce, initially with the aid of books, the internet, and friends who are chefs. He was eventually assisted by programs of government agencies such as the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Agriculture (DA), and Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
He said his Extreme Reaper, the hottest in his sauce repertoire, underwent two trials before its current recipe. From there, he was able to develop 10 flavored varieties such as Crazy Garlic, Salted Egg, Curry Hot, Sweet and Spicy, Spicy Honey, Premium with Herbs to name a few.
His passion for his business yielded even more outstanding results.
Servillon shared that while under the Kabayan, Mentor Me program of the DTI in Davao Region (DTI-Davao), samples of the Arkadyo Pepper Sauce were tested and passed international standards.
It qualified for export because of its long shelf-life despite being made with 100 percent natural ingredients such as coco sap and vinegar and salt as preservatives.
“Didto nakuratan nitulo akong luha, gi-announce man (I was really surprised and became emotional after it was announced),” Servillon said. He admitted he did not prepare for it and he was not prepared for it.
He took these unexpected successes as well as the hassle-free applications for business registration and intellectual property rights as signs that the business was really made for him.
“Siguro kani nga business ba gihatag gyud ni sa Ginoo kay sige kog hinuktok kung unsa akong buhaton kay gusto ko magbuhat og negosyo kanang mufollow ang next generation sa akoa (Maybe God really gave this business to me because I was really contemplating on what business I should venture in that my next generation can follow),” he said.
He attributed his success in chili to his failures with ginger because it pushed him to learn even more about farming.
“Importante gyud kaayo kay katong nag organic ko sa luy-a, didto gyud ang grabe nga knowledge nga akong nakuha ba kay naay training sa gobyerno, sa DA [Dep], doctor sa agriculture nga akong naistorya, so giapply nako sa sili (My experiences with ginger was very important because from there I gained knowledge, from trainings given by the government like the DA, insights from doctors in field of agriculture, and applied them in cultivating chili),” he shared.
“Dapat taas gyud og pasensya ug commitment. Flexible lang gyud ka. Dili lang gyud ka close-minded kay every failure man gud is a lesson man gud imong ma learn (You should have patience and commitment. You should be flexible and not close-minded because, in every failure, there is a lesson to learn),” he added.