Keeping our mangoes delightful

We continue with our vigilant watch over the well-being of the Philippines’ agriculture sector. This time, let’s take a look at our local mango exporters who are finding themselves in a new bind. Still struggling to comply with the more stringent maximum residue levels for pesticides by Japan, one of our major buyers of fresh mango from the Philippines, producers now face the threat of losing another big market — China.

A few months back, Chinese quarantine authorities informed their Filipino counterparts that only vapor heat treated (VHT) fresh mango exports will be allowed entry into their ports. They claimed that in 2005, six shipments of fresh mango exports from the Philippines were rejected because of fruit fly infestation.

This caught our exporters off guard since China is not perceived as meticulous in imposing sanitary and phytosanitary quarantine measures. This prompted our exporters to ask China’s Department of Supervision on Animal and Plant Quarantine to reconsider this new rule.

Our government bureaucrats argued that the required quarantine measure is not supported by an import risk analysis. In fact, the Bureau of Plant Industry asked for a full-blown investigation because the so-called Bactrocera Dorsalis fruit fly supposedly no longer exists in the Philippines.

China becoming quality conscious

The Chinese government’s new rule should not come as a surprise at all to mango exporters. In fact, exporters should have long been prepared for the eventuality that China, like many other countries that are major buyers of commodities, will one day look at not just the price, but the quality as well.

Mango exporters to date are not keen on investing in a new VHT facility which costs about P32 million. They say this will raise the cost of mangoes shipped to China by about P40 per kilo. The existing VHT facilities cannot be used because these are used solely for exports to Korea and Japan.

Surely, exporters need to exhaust all means to convince China to reconsider its position. But beyond appealing for reconsideration, or at the most some reasonable lead time in implementing the new rules, Philippine mango exporters should take a long hard look at themselves and face their problems head-on.

China is now the Philippines’ biggest market for fresh and processed mangoes, accounting for 75 percent of all mango exports. Exporters have to ensure that they keep the Chinese market by approaching the issues squarely and focusing on enhancing competitiveness, instead of constantly squirming and whining.

Coping with sophisticated markets

As it is, the local mango industry is already struggling to keep the increasingly health-conscious Japanese market, which is more and more veering toward eliminating all forms of toxic chemicals used in treating fresh agricultural produce.

Efforts also to expand fresh mango exports to the US mainland is being stymied by the US Department of Agriculture ruling that only fresh mango from the mango pulp and pulp seed weevil-free Guimaras Island in the Visayas can enter the mainland.

Clearly, our mango farmers need to be re-trained to enable them to comprehend the demands of markets becoming more quality conscious and sophisticated. Government agencies like the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) should be more aggressive in information dissemination and conduct extensive training on international standards and modern agricultural practices.

So often, poorly-trained mango farmers indiscriminately use pesticides to treat mango diseases, resulting in several rejections by quarantine authorities in Japan and other countries. This includes not only the fresh exports but also the processed mangoes.

Guiness book recognition not enough

For years also, we have been trying to improve the export penetration of fresh mangoes in the US mainland market. One might think it would be a breeze since the Guiness Book of World Records even recognizes our Carabao/Manila mango variety as being the most flavorful mango in the world.

However, Filipino mango exporters to the US are waging a pitiful effort in establishing their presence in a market that is dominated by Mexico, which, through sheer cunning, was able to "steal" and label their Mexico-grown mangoes as "Manila Mango." The Philippines lost its patent war with Mexico because it did not move fast enough to prevent such outright poaching.

More R&D to preserve mangoes delight

Apart from high costs, there is another issue affecting Philippine mangoes’ competitiveness. It takes almost a month to ship fresh mangoes to the US ports. What happens is that this shortens the shelf life of the commodity when it reaches retail outlets. In contrast, Mexico and other South American exporters can ship their products in a week or two to the US.

Aside from working on bringing export costs down, the government should intensify current research and development efforts, particularly in extending the shelf life of fresh mango so that it maintains its quality by the time it reaches not only the US market but other equally profitable markets such as the European Union and the Middle East.

One particularly promising R&D undertaking is the series of experiments on controlled atmosphere technology for mangoes conducted by the Central Luzon State University. The results have shown that the technology can assure our mangoes will reach US markets in excellent condition even after 28 days of shipping.

We also need more interventions like the USDA-funded RP Mango Export Competitiveness Study. If completed and implemented, this will allow mangoes coming from all production areas in the Philippines except Palawan to enter Hawaii and Guam, and subsequently other US territories and mainland states.

Both exporters and the government should not lose sight of the tremendous opportunities these efforts could generate if they concentrate on the bottom-line issue amid all the other clear and present export barriers. It is not just an issue of compliance with the rigid import rules of buyers, but more importantly, it is preserving and nurturing whatever competitive edge remaining that would really turn things around for the Philippine mango industry.

Poker tournament enthusiasts

Visit the Philippine Poker Tour official web site www.PhilippinePokerTour.com, and watch for the details of the next major non-wager competition, the Poker King Challenge Series 2006. All poker tournament enthusiasts are enjoined to brush up on their Hold’em strategies in preparation for the satellite and leg competitions leading to the Grand Finals scheduled in December.

The web site also features the full pictorial coverage of the biggest non-wager poker tournament that was recently concluded, the Million-Peso Hold’em Philippine Championship. The final table action of the tournament was covered by Solar Entertainment, and will be shown shortly on the television cable station Sports Plus.

Should you wish to share any insights, write me at Link Edge, 4th Floor, 156 Valero Street, Salcedo Village, 1227 Makati City. Or e-mail me at [email protected] or at [email protected]. If you wish to view the previous columns, you may visit my website at http://bizlinks.linkedge.biz