Philippines: Mango exporters urged to cater to Japan

Inexpensive, agrochemical-free and easy to eat. These are the basic elements mango exporters should focus on if they want to capture the lucrative Japanese market, an official of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said. “The Japanese are not that familiar with the mango. We Filipinos, on the other hand. know if a mango is sweet or sour by its smell,” provincial director of the DTI-Davao del Sur Edwin O. Banquerigo said, citing a study that revealed that four in 10 Japanese are more likely to buy mangoes if they are easy to eat. The study also showed that six in 10 Japanese will buy mangoes if they’re not expensive while another 60% said they prefer mangoes that are free from agro-chemicals.

Mr. Banquerigo said quick-freeze (pre-peeled) mangoes should have a big market in Japan. “Maybe we also need to look into how to improve our export grade,” he added. Mindanao has the biggest area planted to mangoes in the country with aggregate figures from Davao del Sur, Maguindanao and Zamboanga del Norte of around 35,000 hectares. This is almost three times the total hectares of Pangasinan, which had nearly 14,000 hectares planted to mango in 2009, according to the report “An Economic Assessment of the Impact of Mango Pulp Weevil on the Agricultural Sector of Palawan” prepared for the agricultural and development seminar series of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture.

Pangasinan, however, was the biggest mango-producing province with 247,308 metric tons in 2009 followed by Cebu with 39,375 metric tons. Mindanao, an emerging producer then, had the fastest growth in production, “producing approximately six times more mangoes in 2009 than they did in 1990,” the study noted. Mr. Banquerigo said Japan’s health obsession should not be ignored as nearly half of the people surveyed between 20 to 60 years old in Japan say they eat fruits everyday. A quarter of the group surveyed claimed they consumed fruit three to four times a week while 21% said they eat fruits one to two times a week.

He said the mangoes in Davao del Sur, now the second biggest producing province in the country, are comparable to those produced in Thailand but the packaging leaves much to be desired. “I was shocked that the mangoes intended for export were wrapped in onion skin (paper) whereas Thailand mangoes were wrapped in yellow-coated plastic,” he said. Incidentally, the Davao Region currently dominates fresh banana exports to Japan.

Source: bworldonline.com