CARP hampers growth of food processing sector

CEBU, Philippines – Although their export fruit processing business has not been affected by the current slump in the economy, the limited supply of raw materials and other issues on land availability have been restraining the growth of the country’s largest dried mango producer Profood International.

“Fruit processing has not been much affected by the crisis although we have been affected by the crop season. The mango industry is still growing but we have problems on the land reform program because there are not enough properties to grow and farm so our suppliers cannot keep up with our need for raw materials,” said Profood International Corp. president Justin Uy.

He said that raw materials for fruit processing include tropical fruits like mangoes, papaya, banana, coconut, jackfruit, sour sop, tamarind, calamansi, dalandan and among others.

Uy said that their demand volume for mangoes alone can go as high as 70, 000 tons per month but because of the government’s CARP program; there are now limited properties to plant mangoes so they cannot sustain this demand.

He said that usually, a three hectare mango farm can only sustain about three weeks of their production which reflects their huge demand for mangoes.

“Mango these days have become a very expensive fruit and its price has increased by around 20 to 30 times. If the price of fruit is so high, there is a limited market but if it will be lower, there will be a wide market to sell. Right now, the prices for fruits are high because of the limited supply and we compete with the fresh fruit market,” said Uy.

He added that compared to other tropical fruits, mango is the top selling product for the Philippines because the other fruits directly compete with other Asian markets which sells these produce at cheaper prices.

Uy also said that although they have been affected by the devaluated currency of some of our Asian neighbors like Korea and Malaysia, they are thankful that peso has appreciated and their US and Canada market was not affected in fact these two markets increased during these times of crisis because most consumers would rather stay home now and eat their product than go out to spend.

He said that there has been a decrease in emerging markets but they kept on looking out for new markets although it has not been easy to introduce new products at this period.

“But we continue to go and now we are trying to penetrate the Middle East market which is difficult to penetrate before. Since dried mangoes are considered to be high end products, we are looking for countries who can afford it,” said Uy.

He shared that right now they are already doing trading their dried mangoes in more or less 40 countries around the world serving as the standard bearer of world class processed fruit products from the Philippines through its Philippine brand.

Profood initially exported its products to Hong Kong and from its initial 400 kilos volume of shipment, it now penetrated discerning markets like the US and made dried mangoes one of the most unique products and also paved the way for our fresh mangoes to hit the world market.

Uy is one of the 25 delegates to the upcoming Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry Trade Mission to Macau this June 24 to 28.

He was also one of the three successful entrepreneurs who was featured in the recently concluded Cebu Business Month (CBM) Meet the Business Icons along with Dr. Alfonso Uy, the president of La Filipino Uy Gongco Corporation which is the largest trading firm in Iloilo as well as George Tan Yang, the chairman of Golden Arches Development Corporation, the Philippine master franchisee of McDonald’s.