MANILA – The El Niño dry spell has yielded a bumper harvest of mangoes in the Philippines, said Agriculture secretary Emmanuel Pinol, who is worried about the glut’s impact on farmers.
“There is a surplus of about 2 million kilos of mangoes now, and this is only in Luzon,” Pinol told reporters, referring to one of the Southeast Asian nation’s three main islands. “We need to do something about this in the next two weeks.”
The Agriculture Department is embarking on a massive promotion of the juicy tropical fruit that is also one of the Philippines’ top exports. Stalls that would sell mangoes for $0.96 a kilo will be put up all over the nation’s capital region.
The government will also lend farmers money to put up their own processing facilities, link them to shipping companies to facilitate sales and boost regular exports, Pinol said. (Bloomberg)
