Monosodium glutamate (MSG) was not commercially available in Davao City until 1960 when couple Domingo Vergara, originally from Katipunan, Catanduanes, and wife Leticia, of Jagna, Bohol, moved from Cagayan de Oro to establish Vergara Food Products in Davao City and introduce repacked condiments, noodles, and spices.
Except for the products añil (indigo-based cloth whitener) sold as Ultramarino, and sotanghon (transparent rice noodle), which carried the Silver Cup label, the company’s misua (wheat vermicelli), paminta (pepper), and panakot (spice) products carried the brand Marca Princesa.
Vergara started retail business as a student of Far Eastern University in Manila. He bought goods from Divisoria and repacked them in his Paco, Manila, boarding house, an activity that would expand years later.
Along with brothers Jose and David, the first MSG retail packs were launched at Tres Martires, Cebu City under Jose’s name; it was a roaring success. David, the youngest, migrated to Cagayan de Oro where he opened his retail enterprise with Domingo.
Finding his siblings reaping success, Domingo and his family moved to Davao City where he launched his own line of retail products. He set up his factory at the junction of Jacinto-Artiaga (before relocating to 666 Aurora Street) and introduced MSG to the Davaoeño palate wrapped in white packets inserted in blue-colored, thin plastic cellophane.
Domingo bought his MSG supply, which was contained in drums, from Manila, sourcing these from Union Merchandising Co., importer of the pioneering Japanese-brand Ajinomoto, and Tien Chu Ve-Tsin Mfg. Co. Ltd., from whom the common name ‘vetsin’ was borrowed.
Marca Princesa’s success among Davao customers can be attributed to several factors, such as novelty of the product, lack of competition, brand recall, good pricing, and absence of commercials offering alternatives. So popular was the product that even the Ajinomoto brand failed to penetrate the local market.
During this time, soap operas on radio and television did not carry ads on food ingredients. Most adverts about toiletry (soap, toothpaste, skin whiteners, cologne, etc.), milk, cigarette, apparels, movies, and shoes. This was the period when Zenith was the top television and radio brand, and people were agog about things vaudeville or stateside.
Marca Princesa vetsin, after over a decade of success, finally closed shop in 1972 due to a crippling labor strike that hit the repacking unit.
Historically, MSG or ve-tsin, which occurs in mushroom, cheese, molasses, grapes, and other fruits, was first commercially produced in 1908 by Suzuki Pharmaceutical Co. of Japan as Aji-No-Moto before this was introduced in Taiwan and China. Kikunae Ikeda, a Japanese inventor, discovered it in seaweeds. The food condiment reached Philippine shores in 1921 but it was exclusively sold in Manila by Japanese stores.
Two years later, the brand name Ve-tsin of Tien Chu Ve-Tsin Mfg. Co. Ltd. of Shanghai and Hong Kong debuted in 1923; it was sold abroad as Ve-tsin Gourmet Powder. In Manila, it was exclusively distributed by Ow Yong Pun Shek as early as 1930s, carrying the Tien Chu Vet-Sin brand; it even won a Gold Prize at the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago, USA.
After the war, in just a short period, the Japanese brand ruined all competitors and became the undisputed king of MSG. It was sold as food seasoning and glutamic acid, but consumers, even today, started to call it vetsin. Ve-tsin’s success gave rise to postwar copycats, such as Markang Manok (Hen Brand), distributed by Agricom Development Co., Inc.
