MANILA -- Spurred by an overproduction of around two million kilos of mangoes in Luzon alone, the Department of Agriculture (DA) will launch on June 10 the Metro Mango Marketing Program to help farmers unload their produce.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel "Manny" Piñol, in a press briefing on Monday, revealed that mango growers have requested for DA's assistance in selling their harvest as the price of the commodity has dropped to as low as PHP10 a kilo due to overproduction.
"The farmers have reported an unusual increase in their harvest this year and they attributed this to the El Niño phenomenon," he said.
Under the program, Piñol said mango of export grade quality will be sold at PHP50 per kilo at the DA central office in Quezon City.
Mango growers have committed to deliver some 100 tons per week.
Piñol said the government is also willing to help mango growers in acquiring storage facilities through soft loans so they can have storage facilities at the community level.
Meanwhile, the DA chief said he will issue a directive to conduct an investigation into a Philippine firm reportedly sourcing mangoes from Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Earlier reports said Justin Uy, Profood founder and president, stated that the 11-hectare processing plant was expected to begin operations in 2019, and that all mangoes dried at the facility would be slated for shipment to the Chinese market to satiate the nation's annual 30,000 tons demand.
"We would like to know if the mangoes that he sourced from Cambodia and other countries are also labeled as Cambodian mangoes not as Philippine mangoes, because the moment he labeled it as Philippine mango, then we will have to talk to him because that is misrepresentation," Piñol noted.
He said that Uy has (also) "lowered his price so low (to the disadvantage of) the farmers."
"Now, he (suddenly) stopped buying. He used to buy about 500 tons daily, now it's just 20 tons a week. He (Uy) is hurting the mango industry of the Philippines and his only excuse is that Philippine mangoes command higher prices than in other countries," he added.
Piñol, however, said that when they checked the landed cost of imported mangoes that he purchased was PHP20 per kilo.
"Our local farmers are willing to sell their mango produce at breakeven price of PHP20 a kilo," he said.
"I don't understand why he (Uy) would prefer to source his mangoes from Cambodia when there's a lot of mangoes in the Philippines," he stressed.
According to the data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Ilocos Region led the country with 51,824 metric tons (MT) or 54.6 percent to the country's total mango production.
The other top producing regions are Central Luzon and Western Visayas with 15,686 MT (16.5 percent) and 6,462 MT (6.8 percent), respectively.
The Carabao mango accounted for 77,251 MT, or 81.4 percent of the total production in January to March, PSA said. (PNA)
