Taking off ‘thorns’ in the durian industry

Durian: smells like hell but tastes like heaven. This king of fruits with strong aroma and sweet taste is well-loved by Mindanaoans and it seems, is slowly gaining new fanatics in the Visayas and Luzon.

Large scale durian production started in mid-’90s. It has continued to grow an average of 11 percent annually from 1999 to 2003. While business is picking up, durian growers, like the rest of Filipino farmers, are still faced with bottlenecks in production, marketing and post harvest handling.

Foremost among the fruit farmers’ concern is the high cost of pesticides and other chemical inputs needed to cultivate high quality crops. According to Mindanao Fruit Industry (Minfruit) Council president Antonio Partoza Jr, a recent survey revealed that agro-chemical prices in Davao are two to 20 times more expensive than in other countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and China.

High input costs, coupled with problems in post production, have contributed to a relative shortage in supply, as indicated by the country’s marginal per capita consumption of durian. In 1999, the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) reported that each Filipino consumes an average of 200 grams a year of durian. Their Thai counterparts, based on the same data, chomp down at least 14 kilos. A similar consumption pattern in the Philippines would require over 1 million metric tons of durian.

In order to confront the challenge of bringing down production cost and creating a strong domestic market for durian, Minfruit members have been working for both the private sector and the government to implement a comprehensive program for durian producers and consumers.

Chemical-free farming

Going "organic" may not be every farmer’s idea of producing fruits, but Partoza swears by the benefits and cost efficiency of chemical-free farming. He uses both improved bio-fertilizer (IBF) and bio fungicide on his own farm.

Partoza gathers carbonized rice hull, durian pulp, rotten vegetables, rice straw, chicken dung and/ or pig and cow manure and adds composting inocula (bacterial activators) to produce his own IBF.

At first glance, his farm seems no different than the other fruit farms. One can see durian trees with painted trunks, longkong seedlings and mango trees, among others, spread out over the 9.5-hectare property of this lawyer turned farmer.

But what sets it apart from all the others is that, since last year, not a single durian tree was afflicted with Phytophthora palmivora, a soil-borne fungus which continues to wreak havoc in many durian producing areas.

The Phytophthora disease causes annual yield losses estimated as much as 30 percent. It causes the most devastating diseases among durian fruits, affecting all stages of the cropping cycle. Its impact is compounded by tree deaths, or storage and transit rots of durian fruit that can destroy entire consignments of the product.

Bio fungicide’s raw materials are almost same as the IBF. The bio fungicide works by controlling the spread of Phytophthora palmivora from the soil to the roots, trunk, stem, leaves and fruits of durian.

"I make bio fungicide for my own use only because I am not yet franchised to produce this commercially. But since I started using the bio fungicide and the IBF about a year ago, I saved roughly 75 percent on the cost of fertilizers and fungicides," he declares.

Once the organic process is approved for local use, Partoza said fruit growers will reduce their production costs and have funds to improve post harvest handling. As a result, consumers will benefit from higher quality and lower priced durian.

Exploring wider markets

Annual durian festivals in the region are also aimed at increasing the market for durian. This activity, organized by the Minfruit Council and the Fruit Development Cooperative of Davao (FDCD) and supported by the Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) Program and the Department of Agriculture (DA) was initiated in 2003.

In December 2004, these same groups joined together to stage a durian festival in Cebu City, an emerging market for high quality durian. With an average of 500 buyers daily, the activity completely sold out the supply brought by exhibitors such as Malaya farms, Uraya farm, Graceland farm, FCDC, Sodaco, and the Food Processors of Davao City. Partoza said they were surprised to have had such brisk sales. Nearly six tons of Arancillo, Puyat and Chanee varieties were bought during the five-day event held at the prestigious, up-market Ayala Center.

Based on this success, Minfruit and FCDC are planning to hold similar festivals in Cagayan de Oro, Metro Manila and to return again to Cebu in 2005.

Even with these efforts, there is still room for the industry’s improvement, admits Partoza. The high transport costs from farm to market and low adoption of better technologies by some growers, for example, have yet to be addressed.

He is delighted to observe that the growers’ hard work and patience are finally beginning to make durian the heavenly fruit for both Philippine and foreign consumers. - (GEM Program)