US will accept only Guimaras mangoes, for now

Growth of the country’s mango exports to the United States will remain slow as the Philippine government has failed to realize its wish of shipping mangoes outside of Guimaras Islands to the US. Only mangoes from Guimaras Island, which has been found pest and disease-free, will be allowed into the US this year.

This piece of bad news was relayed last week by US Agricutural Attaché Michael Woolsey and by Asia Pacific regional director Robert Tanaka of the US Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Tanaka explained that the process – from the submission of a formal request by the Philippine government (to source its mango shipments to the US from other mango areas) to its landing in the Federal Resistry "takes about six to 10 years, as has been the case of the Philippines’ application for its Guimaras Island mangoes."

He said the process starts with the submission by the Philippine government of a formal request to get mango supplies for shipment to the US from other regions. Then the Philippines’ Bureau of Plant Industry will send a pest risk report after which there will be an exchange of clarifying information between the Philippines and the US. The reports will be evaluated and validated by field visits and scientific processes by USDA staff while the Philippine government will be asked to submit a risk control program. The USDA will then determine other available pest risk program from other countries.

The Philippines will also be required to submit a trade protocol for mango exports to the US which will be validated by the USDA before it gets to land in the Federal Registry.

But even before it lands in the Federal Registry, the USDA will still have to consult local mango growers and fruit suppliers in America about such mango exports and how they will affect America’s small businesses.

Tanaka said this same process was used in the Philippines’ application for mango exports to the US from Guimaras Island, which took 10 years to complete.

On the possible use by Filipino mango and fruit exporters of the electronic beam or more popularly called irradiation technology – which has been proven to eliminate mango seed weevil – Woolsey said "we still have to determine if such a technology will affect or not the taste of the fruits we are going to allow to be imported in our shores."

An irradiation machine costs around $5 to $15 million.

Lapanday Foods and Del Monte Corp. chairman Luis Lorenzo Jr. has described the technology as "far too expensive than the current vapor heat treatment being used by Philippine banana exporters to Japan."