Since 2004, the former FAE pilot “flies” in the delivery of humitas, quimbolitos and fruit pulp.
When, for many people, unemployment becomes a family trauma, due to the worries and anguish of being out of work, to David Sigüencia, retired aviator from the Ecuadorian Air Force (FAE), became the beginning of a family success story called Del Valle Lojano, a company dedicated to the production and distribution of consumer products that a few days ago made its first export to Europe.
The company, says Sigüencia, sent the first container of humitas to Spain, a dream that it fulfilled after 17 years in the Ecuadorian market. “And our next market will be Italy, because Ecuadorians there also ask for our products, and that is why the indications on the packaging are in Spanish, English and Italian …”.
Sigüencia recalls that at the age of 32, with the rank of captain, he decided to give up an eleven-year military life for the promise of working as a pilot for an airline. But that job offer did not materialize and he could not back down, and Like his wife, Patricia Gómez, he went on the list of unemployed in the country.
“My parents were going through a very difficult situation, my in-laws were the same; Nobody could help us in the family, to the point that we collected the pennies from the chest where we gathered to buy the gas tank … ”, says Sigüencia.
He adds that the idea of making humitas came from his father-in-law as a desperate measure. “But he told me to make them with the corn from Loja, where he is from, and I told him well, just send me; there was no other option. We started with the hand mill, by hand, in the kitchen, and we began to knock on the doors of friends and family, of restaurants and cafes; they bought us four or five humitas, a week we sold about fifty humitas ”, he recalls.
The business began to take a positive turn when a cafeteria, owned by a Swiss, decided to bet on the product and ordered 50 units. “He tried them and told me to bring 50; The next day he told me that the humitas sold very well and he told me ‘bring me 80’; the next day, 100; in that week we sold 400 humitas and we jumped with emotion, and we knew that this was the salvation to our despair and unemployment … ”.
From then on, says Sigüencia, sales increased, but the peak of success came when they decided to knock on the door of a supermarket chain with a nationwide presence. “After insisting for almost a year, showing that our product was of good quality, that we had all the records, they accepted us, so we went from producing 500 humitas a week to producing 5,000 just for them …”.
Remember that it was a great challenge because they did not have the appropriate machinery and had to stay working until dawn, with the help of their parents. What they have never stopped doing, says the captain in passive service, is providing the product to restaurants and small customers. “We were born with them and we are very pleasant, the person who calls us we attend with great pleasure, the only thing different is that we do on request.
Currently, Del Valle Lojano also produces quimbolitos, mote, yucca and fruit pulps. Their products also arrive in the United States with the Mama Tere brand, belonging to another company that contacted them to do makeup for them. “But we wanted to be the exporters and two and a half years ago the opportunity to work as a pilot in Spain arose, of a corporate plane, and I told my wife that the conditions were being met and that we could be producers, exporters, importers and distributors of our own product … ”.
David Sigüencia points out that they moved to Spain, where they created a company to import their products from Ecuador, now with the Delicias de mi Tierra brand, with the aim of captivating all Latin American migrants. “We have been able to close the circle a little, we do not depend on anyone for now, people are going to join, of course, because we are not going to be able to distribute by our own means, we have to make strategic alliances with distributors in Europe … . ”.
Sigüencia recognizes that his wife is the one who is 100% dedicated to the company, his two minor children alternate studies with small responsibilities in the business, while he fulfills, in parallel, his responsibility to fly a Fokker F- plane. 28, as well as the one to “fly” when it is his turn to deliver the humitas. (I)
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
