Juan Miguel Cerdán is the owner of Distribuciones Yaiza and has lived in Lanzarote almost all his life. Passionate about sales and local Canarian products, he decided to start his own company.
In an interview on the Más de Uno Gourmet program on Radio Lanzarote, he breaks down his product catalog and his emphasis on prioritizing quality instead of competing on price.
- How did you decide to start a distribution company for Canarian products in Lanzarote?
I am a protégé of the island, I have lived here almost all my life and Lanzarote has given me everything. I had a pet store near El Reducto for many years and, later, I started working in a company that sold Canarian products and I became passionate about it.
I really like the products from Lanzarote, and the Canary Islands in general, they are fabulous. Over time, I decided to create the Yaiza brand and collaborate with manufacturers who do things well, who use good raw materials and, above all, who have zero-kilometer products.
- What new things does the Yaiza distributor bring that the competition didn't?
Our product range includes only local products such as jams, mojos, juices, honey... We have chosen to be close to our suppliers. All the products we distribute are from the islands.
They are very family-oriented manufacturers who make their products with care.
- What was the first product that Yaiza distributed?
When you start a company, there is the sentimental part, the heart, and there is the head, you have to pay bills. So you ask yourself what sells, you are guided by your sales experiences. So, we decided to start with jams.
The first was cactus jam, from Indian fig. In large, small and kilo formats for restaurants. It is a product that attracts a lot of attention from tourists. Then we extended the range to more flavors such as banana, papaya, mango, banana... and they were very well received.
- And you place particular emphasis on quality...
Always with quality products. The current trend is to take great care of food. What you don't invest in good nutrition, you will invest in a good pharmacy.
We place a lot of emphasis on manufacturers to take care of quality and not so much on costs. Our products are not for supermarket chains, but for local markets or small stores.
- If we don't take care of local products, what happened with the potatoes from England will happen...
Exactly, it's obvious. You said potatoes in the Canary Islands, but we have also seen it nationally with strawberries.
We also wanted to contribute to having more juices made with local products. We started with the Indian fig juice, then we released the fig with banana, a little sweeter, since the Indian fig has a more citrusy touch. Finally, we have released the fig with passion fruit and they have been very well received. We want to start offering them in restaurants as well.
- Where can your products be tasted or purchased?
We were very lucky that the Tourist Centers included our cactus juice, which has given it a lot of visibility. In restaurants, we are just starting. We are going door to door with restaurants so that they also include them.
In food stores, which is where we have started the strongest, you can find our products in the supermarkets of Tinajo, La Santa, La Santa Sport, the supermarket of Arrieta, at the entrance of the town of Yaiza, in the cafeteria next to the supermarket... and many more places.
