The Department of Agriculture (DA) will craft a five-year mango-development plan to increase mango production, which declined by nearly 10 percent last year.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said he has ordered the crafting of the road map after DA officials met with mango-industry stakeholders on July 18.
Piñol added the meeting was attended by top exporters of dried and processed mango, the president of the Philippine Mango Growers Assocation, Agriculture Undersecretary Evelyn G. Laviña, Bureau of Plant Industry Officer in Charge Vivencio Mamaril and North Cotabato Board Member Rollyboy Sacdalan.
“It was agreed that the government should step in and come up with a clear plan to address the problems while, at the same time, draw up a five-year road map to fully develop the Philippine mango industry,” he said in a Facebook post on July 20.
Piñol added industry stakeholders had voiced out to him the country’s dwindling production and the problems they are currently facing.
“While the demand for mango has increased over the years, Philippine mango production has declined drastically,” he said. “The Philippine Mango Growers Association said national production has dropped from over 1 million [metric tons] annually to only 400,000 MT
last year.”
In an interview with reporters on Thursday the DA chief said the road map seeks to address the industry’s perennial problem with pests, particularly the cecid fly and capsid bug.
Piñol added he will also lift the ban on the importation of calcium nitrate, a chemical used by mango growers to catalyze the flowering stage of the fruit.
“In 2016 the government banned the importation of calcium nitrate, which is used to induce flowering in mangoes. The reason being is that calcium nitrate could be used in making bombs,” he said. “Now, I want importation to resume.”
Piñol added he also directed the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) to tweak the schedule of release of sugar imported by mango processors.
“What the SRA is doing [is] that they release the allocation of sugar importation for mango processors every quarter,” he said.
“We were able to address this by instructing [SRA Administrator Anna Rosario V. Paner] to give attention to the request of dried-mango processors’s request to time the release of sugar imports based on cropping season,” Piñol added.
Image credits: Henry Empeño