RESTAURANTS serving vegan or plant-based food in Davao City are recently enjoying the warm reception from the public. They were able to take advantage of people's gradual shift to conscientious or healthy diet, whether it is a just fad or serious lifestyle change.
But before the 60-year-old yogi Amalia Mordeno experienced the same fate with her vegan food corner in Buhangin EZ-Chow and a snack stall in Rizal Park, she had to get through bankruptcy for starting it too early.
Mordeno, who has been a vegan since 17 years old, introduced plant-based food to Davaoeños around 2015 to share her advocacy of consuming less meat.
She had a small food corner in a nook somewhere in San Pedro Square where she served plant-based burgers, barbecue, siomai, empanada, siopao, sisig, and lumpia among others.
She gained a considerable amount of habitués during that time until an American guest, who appreciated what she was doing, lent her P1 million which enabled her to expand her food chains.
Ecstatic, she rented three stalls – near a mall in Bajada, in front of Ateneo de Davao University (Addu), and another in Buhangin and became the first to introduce plant-based food in the city. However, the stall only lasted for a year.
"Konti pa lang talaga ang percentage ng ma-appreciate ang plant-based na food (There are only few people who can appreciate plant-based food), unlike this time. Sana, I should have started this time. It was too early for me to put up in the beginning," Mordeno fondly recalled her journey. "I was really struggling," she said.
Apart from that, Mordeno also thought the prices of her food were unreasonably high for something made out of vegetables.
"I was not really making money because I was listening to the opinions of the customers. Sabi nila, "Ay gulay lang man yan so dapat mura lang (They would say that it should be cheap because it is only vegetables)," she said.
"So sinasagad namin yung presyo, mababa talaga. Hindi ka na nga kumita, sobra pa ang pagod mo (We really lowered the price so our sales were also low and I was getting exhausted)," she added.
It has dragged her sales down especially that she is paying for rent and other bills. She has also hired many people, but she ended up struggling to pay them.
The stall shut one by one except for her food corner along Diversion Road, Buhangin and a stall in Farmers' Market in Rizal Park every Thursday and Friday.
When she noticed that plant-based lifestyle is slowly picking up and that other vegan restaurants offering almost the same products that she has are selling them expensively, she decided to double her price.
"Our burger and the empanada were only P15 and we doubled the price. Mas lumaki ang sales," Mordeno said.
Her sales grew to about P7, 000 a day from as low as P1, 500 a day five years ago.
She is also trusting only two staff to manage the day-to-day operations, and preparations of the food.
She considered all that happened to her as learning experiences.
"You should understand you should know your market. I was just selling like [it was really just an] advocacy. For many years, ganun ng ganun. Hindi ako nag go-grow (It was like that for years and we did not grow)," she said.
"Failures are also good, good contribution to what you're doing in life," she added.
Aside from her original food offerings, she also supplies plant-based tocino, sisig, and frozen barbecue and siomai to some vegetarian restaurants in the city.
She felt the demand for a healthy alternatives when the frequency and volume of her delivery increased over time. She said people have become health conscious because of ailments they developed from the food they eat.
"Hindi naman lahat maging vegetarian or vegan but at least kumain sila ng maraming gulay. Maraming green, fiber kasi pag palaging meat ka, magkakaroon ka talaga ng constipation and that is the mother of many diseases (Not all can switch being vegetarian or vegan. But they should at least eat green vegetables so they will not get constipation)," she said.
Mordeno also planned to put up soon a drive-thru for her food to reach people in the middle to lower class and debunk the notion that plant-based food is a food exclusive to the wealthy people.