Department of Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol has revealed that the El Niño season has brought about a surplus of mangoes in the Philippines.
“There is a surplus of about 2 million kilos of mangoes now, and this is only in Luzon,” Pinol told the media, specifically referring that the amount only accounts for Luzon, and that there might be more in the VisMin areas. “We need to do something about this in the next two weeks.”
The report from Bloomberg furthers that the Agriculture Department is currently on a massive promotion of one of the Philippines’ top exports, which recently landed in Dubai a few weeks back – much to the delight of almost a million Filipinos in the region.
Virginia Dela Fuente, Philippine Mango Industry Foundation Inc. president, said in a report that the export to Dubai was a result of a series of “mango conventions,” one of which was the 21st National Mango Congress held March 19 to 21 at the Isabela State University in Echague, Isabela.
Piñol furthers that the government will also provide financial assistance for farmers to establish and launch their own processing facilities for the mangoes, and will assist the farmers to create connections with shipping companies to boost their export efforts.
