By Arsenio “Toto” Barcelona
In 2018, Zac Sarian and I organized a farm tour to Taiwan with friends. Zac one day brought up the idea to me and excitedly christened it as Zac-To Tour, obviously for Zac and Toto. It was a truly memorable trip that opened our eyes to opportunities and great learnings in agribusiness, the Taiwanese way.
Jane Chen of Everbright Tours really did a good job scheduling our visits to established Farm Tourism sites across the whole island of Taiwan. We visited the only Squash themed 2,000 sqm tourist destination complete with a showcase of more than 50 varieties of squash and pumpkin plus a supermarket of squash-relished food items in lovely gift boxes. A five hectare flower garden cum resto. A cattle dairy farm with kilometers of green lined pathway ending with hands-on milking of Mama Cow. An evening get-together with pioneers in farm tourism sharing their experience of buying a 100 hectare land and converting it into a manufacturing facility for health creams, skin care and youth elixirs. A wine factory that started from scratch from locally-grown grapes and fruits. We learned how to make a flying torch with rice paper that brightened up the night sky.
The thirteen of us were like children drawing messages on the paper before pasting it on a concave bamboo frame and light a small candle that heats up the air inside to raise up the paper balloon and decorate the night sky like floating stars. We picked sweet oranges from the orchard and ate all we could aside from the pabaon. We learned a lot about the Research Center for Amaryllis in Taichung. The Taiwanese government really put their money and efforts in improving agriculture with dedicated scientists turning simple plants into high-value exportable flowers, fruits and vegetables, seeds and potted plants. The trip culminated in our walking tour of the annual Floriculture Exhibition of lovely orchids, ornamentals and showcase of their breeding program and tissue cultured mericlones. It was indeed a great Taiwan learning experience for all of us.
My good friend Zac has been my mentor since the first time I met him in the 1970s. I attended his Agribiz Kapihan at the Seedling Bank site in Quezon City. My brother, Manuel, invited me. Manuel is a great fan of Zac’s Mr. and Ms. Magazine and Agriculture Column articles. He cut and collected them in several scrapbooks. I was impressed by the friendliness and sense of humor of Zac. At that time he was in his 30s and well-known nationwide for his inspiring write ups on successful agri entrepreneurs, agri technologies, and failures to avoid, too.
As the years passed, we became really good friends. I am always inspired by his simple features on agri people with his Agri Talk column in Panorama Magazine. Later in 1997, he shared with me his new assignment as Editor-in-Chief of the Agriculture Magazine of Manila Bulletin. Harbest was his first advertiser and he featured several of our popular seedless watermelon and super sweet corn varieties from Known-You on the cover. Our friendship took deeper roots as we he accompanied me in my trips to India, Taiwan, and China to learn a lot on agriculture and aquaculture. Zac was always with his pen and diary. He was always ready to write down key words and simple comments that turned out to be highly inspiring articles about the learnings we gained from the Founder of Jain Irrigation, Baba Jain, or the anniversary exhibits of the latest varieties of watermelon and melons by the breeders of Known-You Seed Co. of Taiwan. It is always heartwarming that Zac immediately shared what he learned from these trips in his columns in Manila Bulletin Agriculture Section. Many would eagerly wait for his Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday spread filled with agri news. I am one of his big fans.
Once, he interviewed me for an article to feature what we have done at Harbest in more than ten years. He just jotted a few sentences. I was surprised with his full feature article on our slow and arduous path to establish Harbest. He also did several features on Known-You Seed Philippines, our partner in the seed business here, after our trips to Taiwan. He was always excited to write on the new varieties of melons, honeydew, and red okra. He was amazed by the different varieties of squash, as Known-You is well known for its breeding program in cucurbits.
In 2017, when we opened our head office in Taytay, Rizal, we had lunch at my new office. It was indeed unforgettable as we ended with dessert as the 21 st century version of Zac’s Agribiz Kapihan at Harbest. In a few weeks, we launched our Saturday get-together with friends who love plants and farming at the Harbest Events Center. The Hardinheroes social group of Mareflo Yngente-Frez, who are plant lovers from Antipolo, Binangonan, Cainta, Pasig, Marikina, Quezon City and as far as Makati, became our Agribiz Kapihan regulars.
Plants exchanges, sharing of growing experiences, or simply socializing attracted more friends to join our weekly, relaxing activity for lovers of plants and nature. In truly Zac’s signature activity, each get-together had successful friends in agribusiness sharing their path to profitability, punctuated by failures along the way and the bitter lessons they don’t want the audience to experience. Free-flowing coffee and free attendance made these gatherings of friends in an air-conditioned room truly enjoyable.
It was really fun with learnings about rabbitry, hydroponics, native pigs, free-range chicken, bonsai art, mushroom farming, Red Lady papaya farming, drip irrigation, natural farming, rice farming, okra export to Japan, orchid breeding, bonsai, drones for agriculture, greenhouse farming, farm tourism, young farmers Agripop cooking demo, selling of planting materials like heat-tolerant strawberries, plant nursery business and proper plant nutrition among others. All these learnings had the signature of educating and inspiring the audience of Zac Sarian.
As Zac would proudly claim, the Agribiz Kapihan has lasted for several decades without any organization, membership fee, or strict rules. It was always a sharing session of knowledge. Camaraderie was felt by everyone. The knowledge shared was further popularized through the writings of Zac Sarian in his weekly column and the Agriculture Magazine articles. In fact, many of those who shared their stories became known to the whole country. Zac is always ready to write about their stories.
I remember once a friend from the seed industry asked me why Zac wrote a lot about what Harbest is doing. I pulled her leg by saying it cost me a million for Zac to write many feature articles about us. I shared this with Zac and he laughed loudly. The fact is Zac did not ask for money to write a story, particularly if he featured a product. He writes because he valued the impact of the story to his readers.
During the early foundation days of Harbest, Zac played a very important role in getting us established as an agribusiness company. I remember well the early Sunday morning set up at SIDCOR Weekend Market organized by AANI. I would drive our small van with my staff Arsie and Rodney at 5am and set up our tent with our garden wares, seeds, and give free advice on gardening the whole of Sunday morning. My suki was the Lady with the Hat, Daisy Languenegger, Baby Spowart and many others who are still our customers up to now.
It was fun too. Zac organized the “laughing club” at Sidcor. He shared lots of his jokes, green jokes about farming. Kaya tawag niya green jokes. It was an effective way also to do product market research and developing clients. This Sunday Market moved to several other locations in Magallanes, Makati, Food Terminal and finally, at Centris. Zac’s initiatives truly helped many agribusiness entrepreneurs establish their enterprise. His books on their success stories also inspired many young entrepreneurs to go into the food production career path.
Personally, Zac is one of my few real friends. We enjoyed our lunch get-together with friends after an Agribiz Kapihan. He would share his sweet pomelo or real Ilocano Pinakbet which he cooked. I enjoyed our foreign learning trips. We exchanged ideas freely. I enjoyed his jokes. In fact on the morning before he passed last December 7, 2020, he sent me a text. A green joke. I truly missed our moments sharing our thoughts and pains on our poor showing in agriculture. He mentored me on the plant business. He does not criticize others but always tried to inspire them. Zac is truly an educator. A pillar of Philippine agriculture. And a true friend.