PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Aug. 7 – The city government here is partnering with the Department of Agriculture (DA) for the establishment of a facility for the processing and marketing of locally-produced mangoes.
The project, which is worth Php15-million, will be set up at Sitio Tagumpay, Barangay Inagawan Subcolony, an outlying barangay located in the southern part of Puerto Princesa.
City Agriculturist Melissa Macasaet said in local interviews that operation of the mango processing facility is expected to operate in January 2018.
The mango processing facility, she said, will be established to support the agriculture sector, particularly mango farmers in Puerto Princesa.
She said the processing facility will substantially help in the mango pulp weevil problem that is currently plaguing the city’s mango industry, and being faced by growers.
“Until now, our mangoes still have the mango pulp weevil problem. But with this processing facility, we hope to give our mango growers the chance to make profit out of their produce,”
Macasaet said the province of Palawan, and its capital, Puerto Princesa, are among the major producers of mangoes in the country.
However, marketing the city’s and the province’s mangoes has suffered serious declines in the past years due to the problem of mango pulp weevil (MPW).
The pest, which is believed to have come from neighboring Malaysia, started infesting mango farms in Palawan in 1987, according to the International Pest Control (IPC).
The IPC said its sporadic infestation in Puerto Princesa City started to be recorded in 1995 after the mango disease spread throughout the province of Palawan.
Mango pulp weevil (Sternochetus frigidus) is a serious exotic pest that burrows into the flesh of mangoes, making them unfit to eat. The MPW looks akin to the mango seed weevil, but eats the flesh rather than the seed. (PNA)
