Pests and bad weather reduced the country’s output of mango and calamansi in the first quarter of 2017, according to the latest report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
In its quarterly report, titled “Major Fruit Crops Quarterly Bulletin”, the PSA said mango production in the January-to-March period declined by 7.8 percent to 107,830 metric tons (MT), from 117,000 MT recorded a year ago.
“The incidence of capsid bug and cecid fly in Zambales resulted in poor quality of fruits and premature fruit drops and the decrease in yield in Nueva Ecija and Pangasinan was due to rainshowers during flowering,” the report read.
The PSA noted that the Ilocos was the top mango-producing region during the quarter, accounting for 55.6 percent of total output during the period. However, production in the region dropped by 3.6 percent to 59,990 MT, from 62,205 MT a year ago.
First quarter production of calamansi declined by 4.4 percent to 14,990 MT, from 15,690 MT recorded in the same period last year, according to the PSA.
“This decline in output was caused by the following factors: the decrease in the number of bearing trees in Quezon due to Typhoon Nina in December 2016; and the drop in yield in Batangas due to the effect of fruit flies during flowering, and in Davao del Norte due to damages brought by heavy rains during the flowering and fruiting stages,” the report added.
The production of other fruits being exported by the Philippines increased during the period, according to the PSA.
The agency noted that expansion of harvest areas caused the country’s output of bananas and pineapples to go up by 2.6 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively.
“For the period January to March 2017, production of banana went up by 2.6 percent from 2.05 million metric tons (MMT) in 2016 to 2.1 MMT this year,” the report read.
“This was brought about by the following: increase in area and number of bearing hills harvested for Cavendish variety on corporate farms in Bukidnon, Sultan Kudarat, Davao City, Davao del Norte and Davao Oriental; and bigger bunches harvested in Misamis Oriental, Saranggani, South Cotabato, Compostela Valley and Davao del Sur, due to sufficient rainfall,” it added.
The PSA said pineapple production in the first quarter reached 613,526 MT, from 591,249 MT recorded a year ago.
“The increment could be traced to the increase in area harvested on corporate farms in Bukidnon and North Cotabato and increase in yield in South Cotabato due to sufficient soil moisture,” the report read.