Justin Uy, Profood International president and CEO, discusses challenges that the mango industry is facing during a forum in Cebu City.
CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA
MORE research and development initiatives are needed to help increase the production of mangoes per hectare.
Justin Uy, president and chief executive officer of Profood International Corp., said that this is a way to address one of the challenges that the mango industry is facing today — the decline in mango production despite the increasing demand for mangoes in the country and abroad.
Today, Uy, said the country has less crops due to the prevalence of pests and other agricultural problems.
The Philippine Mango Growers Association said that national production dropped to 400,000 metric tons last year from an average of over one million MT annually.
Uy also cited the lack of corporate growers as among the challenges in the industry.
“The reason for that is our current agrarian reform, which has been there for three decades. Nobody wants to plant mango on a big scale because you cannot legally own land, ‘except if you are a politician,’” he told reporters during a recent conference in Cebu City.
Mango is one of the most premium agricultural exports of the Philippines.
Uy, one of the pioneers in the country’s dried mango industry, exports dried mangoes to 52 countries around the world and is the only Philippine brand carried by Costco, the largest American membership-only warehouse club.
Last month, Uy met with Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol to shed light on the current situation of the country’s mango industry.
“I was discussing that it was about time they take a look at the mango industry. We have already set up a huge market and other Asian (countries) have taken advantage of our short delivery,” he said.
He added that the Philippines can’t deliver to all its markets because the industry’s growth has already stagnated.
In dried mango production, the Philippines currently ranks first in Southeast Asia. In mango fruit production, however, Uy said the country used to be sixth in the region, but may now be in eighth place.
The world’s largest mango-producing country is India, followed by China, Thailand, Indonesia, and Pakistan.