Turmeric tea making becomes a successful venture to an OFW wife

Homegrown tea: Mira’s Turmeric Products are sold in major supermarkets

Turmeric is a spice that comes from the turmeric plant. A member of the ginger family, it is mostly used as the main spice in curry. It is also known for its medicinal purposes as an antioxidant, treatment for high cholesterol, and treatment for conditions involving inflammation, such as osteoarthritis.

A wife of Filipino overseas worker from Batangas saw the potential of the turmeric as a crop that she could process into a tea and sell.  

Almira Silva, a resident of San Salvador, Lipa City, wanted to help her husband earn additional income for their family so she started organic farming in 2014. On the family’s farm lot, she planted turmeric and ginger. A year into planting these crops, Silva harvested up to 1,400 kilos, but buyers offered a very low price for the crops. To earn more from the crops, she started processing the turmeric and ginger and turning these into salabat tea powder.

She put up Mira’s Turmeric Products in 2015. She had to do the entire process of making tumeric tea on her own using equipment from her kitchen.  

Almira Silva (left) saw the business potential of making tea from turmeric grown in their family’s farm lot in Batangas

Silva has always been passionate about cooking, which helped her find the perfect formulation for the turmeric and ginger brew. She also got ideas from cooking videos posted online.

She sold the initial batch of salabat to her friends and relatives, who all gave positive feedback.

A one-month worth of production was sold out in just two days. “There were times when the orders were too overwhelming, and my husband and I had to work 24 hours,” according to Silva.

Today, Silva has 14 workers on the production side, while 10 more workers are assigned to the farm.

When the business was just starting, Silva would just need 10 kilos of turmeric to process per day. But with the growing demand for their turmeric tea, they need to process 300 kilos per day. For more supply of turmeric, she began buying turmeric crops from farmers in Batangas province.

While the work could be tedious, Almira is glad that her turmeric tea business has grown substantially and that it is already helping the entire community.

“We get our raw materials from cooperatives, whose members are local farmers. We get our coco sugar and honey from them as well,” she shared.

Aside from cooperatives and farmers, Silva also has several distributors. Many are housewives, who now earn extra money. 

Mira’s Turmeric Products are not just sold in small retail stores. Their salabat tea powder can also be bought in pasalubong outlets, and stores overseas and big supermarkets such as Robinsons, All Day, Fisher Mall and SM. At least five big companies get their turmeric products from Mira’s.

Mira’s Turmeric Products have also reached markets in Singapore, India, Malaysia, and Hong Kong.

Silva said the success of their business did not happen overnight. They poured in effort, time, and knowledge into developing the business. 

“We make sure that we innovate and offer something new to our clients,” Silva said. “We always listen to our customers.”

Raquel P. Gomez
Special Features writer at Philippine Daily Inquirer. She is tasked to write anything under the sun, but certain topics appeal to her personally, like technology, gardening, cooking, food, movies, TV series, heritage and historical areas, and travel. You may email her at rgomez@inquirer.com.ph