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Villa Socorro Farm has a corporate — and punny — bent as it looks at maximizing its banana chip biz

WHILE Marcial Aaron may have had a dream job (he was chief executive officer of Unilever’s Food Division), it turns out that his true dream could be found in his roots.

In the About page of his family’s Villa Socorro Farm, he said, “It all started as a dream: I grew up in a farming community. My grandparents and parents were farmers. Naturally, I wanted to become a farmer too!”

Mr. Aaron graduated with a degree in Chemical Engineering from De La Salle University and rose to the top post at the multinational company. Today, he and his family run Villa Socorro Farm, named after his wife, Socorro, “as an open love letter to her.”

Villa Socorro Farm has several products, ranging from banana chips to banana fiber, and the family has taken up the banana business quite seriously. For example, while Mr. Aaron is billed as Founding Father and Farmer on their website, his wife Socorro is called “Pusong Ina” as a joke on banana hearts — the banana-related puns are everywhere — but she’s also Vice-President for Integrated HR and Administration. Their children, Raymund and Diana, are called The Banana Chief (and Vice-President for Integrated Operations and Sales) and Señorita Banana (and Vice-President for Integrated Marketing), respectively. The younger Mr. Aaron even signed his e-mails to BusinessWorld with “Puno ng Puso (full of heart).”

Right now, Villa Socorro’s banana chips, branded Sabanana Banana Chips, can be found not only in shelves around the Philippines, but also in 18 other countries (including in Korea, Singapore, Australia, Saudi Arabia, the US, France, Holland, and Norway, among others).

CORPORATE DISCIPLINE
While the farm was initially acquired in 1998, Sabanana was launched in 2006, after the senior Mr. Aaron retired from Unilever in 2004. The younger Mr. Aaron discussed how his father’s background aided in setting up the brand. “Bringing in the corporate discipline helped a lot especially during the early stages of setting up the business. Having the structured approach in the corporate world brought in an organized, process-oriented management of the business that’s often disregarded by start-up entrepreneurs, and more so businesses in the field of Philippine agriculture.”

While banana chips are best known as bus stop snacks made usually by backyard entrepreneurs, Mr. Aaron talked about what they did differently. The chips are made from the Philippine saba banana which are washed, peeled, sliced, cooked, and packed within 24 hours. “There were mostly only home-based brands like you mentioned and there was no top-of-mind brand for banana chips. We saw this as an opportunity to be that brand,” he said.

“We started by investing in the improvement of our packaging material that allowed us to export. We also just really put ourselves out there and tried out different channels for our products. We started by selling to canteens in offices and schools that had low competition. We then targeted pasalubong (souvenir) stores. We eventually got some recognition and got into chain supermarkets that led to visibility to potential exports partners.”

Mr. Aaron said that last year they sold half a million 100-gram packs. The chips come in different flavors: the original traditional sweet blend, Smoky Barbecue, Roasted Garlic, Simply Lite, and Chocnut.

LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION
Location is also key for the farm: located in Pagsanjan, Laguna, Mr. Aaron praises the produce of the region. “We believe the saba grown in our region are the best variety in the Philippines. They are smaller but packed with flavor,” he said. While banana is their primary crop, other plants are grown within the farm as well: “Our bananas are naturally grown and we also practice intercropping because in doing so, fruit-bearing trees like lanzones, rambutan, mangosteen would act as a wind-breaker for when we get hit by a strong typhoon whereas the bananas hold plenty of water to keep the soil moist during dry season.”

This approach also led them to create other products: for example, furniture is made from mahogany trees felled by storms in the property (initially planted by the senior Mr. Aaron to protect their crops). The farm also dabbles in fiber, using a machine awarded by the Department of Science and Technology (DoST) to process banana trunks into fiber, which the younger Mr. Aaron said would have been otherwise converted into biowaste.

“It’s not so much just about the ‘special’ qualities of the banana, but mainly the mindset and sustainability approach of Villa Socorro Farm. We see waste products of one process as a potential raw material for another and that keeps us searching for new uses these materials,” he said.

The farm also serves as a resort, and was even used as a location for the 2000 Kevin Costner-starrer Thirteen Days.

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
Villa Socorro Farms is operated by the Aarons as a social enterprise. While the tag is easily attached to many businesses today, Mr. Aaron goes into detail into how exactly they help the farmers and the surrounding community. “We only grow around 2% of the bananas we use for the banana chips manufacturing facility. Most of the supply (comes) from over 220 partner-farmers we have within our area. We offer training programs in farming best practices and provide them with planting materials if necessary. We then buy back their harvests to provide them sustainable livelihood in farming,” he said. Mr. Aaron told us a story about one of their partner farmers, called Kuya Willy. Kuya Willy had once told him, “Daig ko pa nag-oopisina (I’m better off than some who work in an office).”

At the heart (pun intended) of the business is a family. “Even going further deeper into the core of what we do is the heart or iyung puso (his pun). We wanted to turn our values into value by creating this social enterprise. After all, ‘socorro’ in Spanish means ‘help,’ and we truly want to be of service to our community and country.”

Working on farms isn’t usually rewarding in the Philippines. It’s backbreaking work (there’s even a nursery rhyme about it), and the rewards are few. According to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the country’s nominal wage rate of agricultural workers in 2019 averaged P331.10 per day. “On the average, male farm workers were paid at P335 per day, higher than the average wage rate of female farm workers at P304.60 per day,” the PSA’s website said. Villa Socorro Farm’s base in Region IV’s Calabarzon area had the highest daily wage rate, pegged at P399.08, while Central Visayas had the lowest at P276.43.

The Aarons are trying to change the narrative of farming by how they operate.

“We’ve only looked at farming as simply being out in the sun planting all day,” he said. “In reality today, it goes further beyond that. When we look at it as an agribusiness, then it becomes as engaging, challenging and exciting as any other career path. It’s an industry that will never cease having a market. One of our basic needs is food, which is why it is important that this industry is not overlooked. At the end of the day, agriculture offers opportunities for bountiful harvests that can be financially rewarding, paired with positive impact to people and the planet, it can be such a fulfilling and lucrative career.

“We only hope to continue becoming a testament of its endless possibilities.”

Sabanana Banana Chips can be found at their online store (villasocorrofarm.com) and also at Roots Collective and Kultura. — Joseph L. Garcia