Top 100 Cebuano Personalities:Justin Sy Uy

CEBU, Philippines — He brought Cebu’s famous mango, dried and packaged them— and in no time, the world went crazy over Philippine mangoes.

Justin Sy Uy founded Profood International Inc., at the age of 19. His company sells dried/processed fruits including juices to 54 countries. Its core product is the dried mangoes whose global market demand has been dramatically expanding.

Four decades later, Profood products made its way to the shelves of Costco, Target and Walmart in the US, despite being a little bit late in joining the race in the mango export business, dried mango in particular.

Profood, having labeled their products with the country's name -- Philippine Brand Dried Mangoes/Made in Cebu -- became one of the best ambassadors for the Philippines abroad, more so for its hometown—Cebu.

Justin, touted as the Philippines’ ‘Mango Magnate’ also owns a plant in Cambodia that would supply the requirement of dried mangoes for the Chinese market.

Today that China and the rest of Asia offer unlimited potential, supply is his only problem.

To date, Profood is the largest dried fruit producer in the country and boasts of a modern facility that caught the eye of international competitors such as China and Vietnam.

Justin never fails to make sure the company stays on top and plants should maximize efficiency with competing mango-producing countries like Thailand and Vietnam.

However, despite Profood's success today, Justin is far from done. He aims to conquer all corners of the world.

While making a fortune in mangoes, Justin put his money back to his home province and eventually across the country.

From mangoes, he is now a significant capitalist to support the development of tourism and retail in the Philippines through building JCentre Mall. He has also invested billions of pesos to buy the Korean company that used to own JPark Island Resort and Waterpark of BXT Corp.

He recently opened the P8 billion JPark Island Resort Panglao, which is the second JPark property that will officially commence the company's move to establish a chain of hotels in the Philippines.