When Zoila Miranda and Carlos Moreno were still food engineering students, they dreamed of forming a family dedicated to making quality food products. “We weren’t even a couple yet… just friends,” says Zoila. Their dream, now married with three children who have also dedicated their lives to the family business, has come true.
Three decades’ ago, the couple was already respected, even well-loved, in Ambato for their chocolate “El Ambateño”. They were pioneers in Tungurahua, marketing the classic chocolate ‘discs’ that today is the way all chocolate from this province is sold, a product available in all the nation’s major supermarkets.
Q’awi, says Carlos, is derived from kukayu in Quichua (which means a little bag of provisions for the road). Five years’ ago, when his son, Carlos Moreno Miranda, returned home after completing a master’s degree, he formed the Q’awi brand with his parents to provide healthy, high-quality food products.
Rice pudding, seafood sango (a traditional dish from the Coast), potato locro with cheese, lupin, Andean figs, gooseberries in syrup… the list of their products is long indeed. All come from the crops of small producers with whom the Moreno Miranda family works closely.
Their vegetables and fruits are usually harvested locally in this province famous for its fertile lands.
But raw materials also come from Machala, Santo Domingo and La Maná. They regularly visit the producers, ensuring the crops are of excellent quality and do not contain pesticides or other additives.
“We have personally gone out to find the best suppliers in Ecuador. As food engineers, it’s part of our DNA and part of our promise to customers. Quality products lead to health and happiness,” explains Zoila. In addition to two food engineers, the team is complemented by an agro-industrial engineer, a biotechnologist and an industrial automation engineer… a team of five dedicated experts in their fields.
When we ask them what it feels like for their brand to be sold and respected so widely in Ecuador, they don’t seem to be aware of how well they have done. They merely emphasize the effort that goes into their daily labor of love. They are an irrepressible family: always inventing, testing, researching, innovating on supermarket shelves across Ecuador.
Contact
Av. D entre las calles Tercera y Cuarta, lote 5. Parque Industrial Ambato
+ (593 3) 243 4168
+ (593 9) 8772 8646
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