Sweet success – The Carabao Mango
THE national fruit is the world’s sweetest.
The Carabao Mango – rated in 1995 by the Guinness Book of World as the sweetest fruit in the world – is known in other countries as the Manila Super Mango.
India is the world’s largest mango producer, followed by China, Australia, Mexico and the United States. The Philippines occupies sixth slot, with 4 percent of world harvests, and is the largest supplier of fresh mangoes to Japan with a market share of 65 percent.
Thailand produces more mangoes but the Philippines exports more. Still, the Philippines gets just 7 percent of the global mango pie.
In Gross Value Added, mango contributes an average of P12.5 billion per year, according to the Bureau of Agricultural Research.
Mango harvests grew by 10 percent last year, the Department of Agriculture (DA) estimates. The 2010 El Niño warm weather contributed to the growth because flowers bloomed in the absence of rain.
Philippine mango exports first grew big time in the early 1990s. By 2010, the country exported $15.99 million worth of fresh and processed mangoes, albeit lower by 18.36 percent compared to the export value in 2008.
Still, the DA’s Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service estimates the average domestic price for mangoes is $0.95 per kilogram, implying an initial premium of almost $5 per kg.
Today, the Philippines exports mangoes to 48 countries. The major markets are Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and the United States. China, through Hong Kong, is the largest destination (51 percent), followed by Japan (31 percent). Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, the Middle East and Europe are major markets.
Based on export volume and value, mango is the major fruit crop, followed by banana and pineapple.
While the Philippines exports less than 10 percent of the mango that it produces, the trade is still worth about $61 million. Domestic consumption is worth P41.6 billion.
Mango is eaten fresh or as dessert (ripe) or salad and relish (immature) and can be processed dried, pureed, juiced, nectared, chutneyed, pickled, rolled, powdered, halved or scooped in light syrup or used as flavoring for ice cream, bakery products and confectionaries.
Fresh mango is the leading dollar earner with over half (59 percent) of total mango exports, followed by dried mangoes (16 percent), mango purees (18 percent), juice concentrates (6 percent) and other mango juices (1 percent).
Fresh mango exports to Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada and other countries reached 46,992 metric tons (mt) worth $31.11 million in 2004. Dried and other processed mango products was 18,039 mt, valued at $20.8 million, according to the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics.
Luzon – mainly Pangasinan – accounts for 65 percent of mango production while Mindanao is next with about a fourth. Mango thrives most where four to five dry months occur: Luzon, Western and Central Visayas, Davao and Cotabato.
Of the 880, 759 hectares of land planted to fruit crops, about 158, 000 has. is planted to mangoes, with seven million trees in 2004 producing 967, 000 mt of fruits worth P16.135 million.The mango industry supports some 2.5 million farmer families, most of them backyard growers with five to 20 fruit bearing trees. The few corporate orchard growers with integrated production and processing operations mostly export their produce. Paul M. Icamina
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