The Philippine Mango is known all over the world as the best mango there is.
In fact, in Mexico and Cuba, Mango Manila which obviously was acquired by the two countries during the days of the Galleon Trade, is reputedly the sweetest in those countries.
Unfortunately, just like the other blessings showered by Mother Nature on this country, the Philippine Mango has been taken for granted and its potentials in uplifting the lives of poor farmers in the countryside largely ignored.
While the demand for Mango has increased over the years, Philippine Mango production has declined drastically.
The Philippine Mango Growers Association said that national production has dropped from over 1-million metric tons every year to only 400,000 metric tons last year.
The latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority said that during the “January-March 2017 period, production of mango dropped by 7.8 percent, from 117.00 thousand metric tons in 2016 to 107.83 thousand metric tons this year.”
“The decrease could be attributed to:
the incidence of capsid bug and cecid fly in Zambales that resulted to poor quality of fruits and premature fruit drops,” according to the PSA report.
“The decrease in yield in Nueva Ecija and Pangasinan (was) due to rainshowers during flowering,” the report said.
“Ilocos Region topped all the mango producing regions with 59.99 thousand metric tons contributing 55.6 percent to the national total (while) Central Luzon ranked second with 18.4 percent share and Western Visayas (third) with 5.8 percent,” according to the PSA.
On Monday night, upon the intercession of former Southern Leyte Vice Governor Shefered Tan, I met with Justin Uy, one of the pioneers in the Dried Mango industry whose Cebu-based business exports dried mangoes to 52 countries around the world.
Over dinner, Uy, whose dried mango is the only Philippine brand carried by Costco in the US, cited a litany of problems confronting the industry, from simple government bureaucratic red tape like restrictions on the importation of the flower inducing nitrates to the inability of government to address the weevil problem in Palawan, the Cesid insects and the Capsid bug which greatly reduced mango production.
“We are losing out to India, Thailand and Cambodia,” the frantic Uy told me.
Following that brief meeting, I decided to call an urgent industry leaders’ meeting in my office yesterday morning, a day after Uy cited to me the problems of the industry.
Present yesterday were the major exportersof dried and processed Philippine mango, the president of the Philippine Mango Growers Association, Undersecretary Evelyn Laviña for High Value Crops, Bureau of Plant Industry Director Vivencio Mamaril and North Cotabato Board Member Rollyboy Sacdalan who shared success stories on mango farm management.
It was agreed yesterday that the government should step in a come up with a clear plan to address the problems while at the same time setting a 5-Year Road Map to fully develop the Philippine Mango Industry.
The first Regional Mango Stakeholders Forum has been scheduled for August 2 in Davao City, then in Pangasinan on Aug. 11 and Cebu City on Aug. 18.
The venue of the Stakeholders Forum will be announced later.
Mango farmers, contractors and processors are expected to attend the series of forum.
At the end of the regional consultations, the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) will craft a 5-Year Road Map which is expected to bring back the Philippine Mango to its glory, the reputation of being the best tasting Mango in the world.
(Photos show Philippine Mango stakeholders in an emergency meeting in my office yesterday who later had the chance of having a photo session with Hungarian Ambassador to the Philippines, Dr. József Bencze. Other photos downloaded from public websites show the iconic Philippine mango while the last photo was downloaded from amazon.com which offers Justin Uy’s Philippine brand dried mangoes for sale.)
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