THE Department of Agriculture (DA) said the mango bumper crop in Luzon is typical for El Niño conditions, and is exploring expanded exports and on-site processing to deal with the surplus.
In a news conference on Monday, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said that mango farmers estimate the current surplus at about two million kilos.
“The farmers have reported an unusual increase in their harvest this year and they attribute it to the El Niño phenomenon. They said that the last time they had this kind of harvest was the El Niño of 2015-2016,” he said.
The programs include the launch of the Metro Mango Marketing Program on June 10, which will seek to sell the fruit all over Metro Manila and to processors.
The DA will activate a loan program charging 2% interest to ensure mango farmers have sufficient capital for the next season and to help them pay for storage.
Mr. Piñol said that he is also encouraging the farmers to build their own processing facilities at the community level.
The rate of export to Dubai will also be increased to 2 metric tons (MT) daily, he said, adding that farmers are requesting access to more shipping companies in order to ship more volume to Hong Kong, their largest export market.
“Next year, ang usapan naming mga February pa lang mag mi-meeting na kami para may projection na kami kung gaano karami ang aanihin nila at ma-program na natin kung saan tayo magbebenta noong ating mga produkto (We agreed that we will be meeting in February next year to come up with a projection of the harvest, and to plan where to sell our products),” he said.
Mr. Piñol said a major mango processor, Profood International Corp., has also decided to process Thai, Cambodian, and Vietnamese mangoes, which sell for P20 per kilo.
Profood “used to buy about 500 tons daily. Ngayon, (Now) 20 tons a week na lang (only), which hurts the mango industry of the Philippines,” Mr. Piñol said, adding that he will check whether to resulting products are properly labeled as foreign mangoes. — Vincent Mariel P. Galang
