Philippine agriculture secretary Arthur C Yap announced his department’s ambition to make Mindanao the country’s agribusiness leader and future “orchard” at a recent fruit industry event, according to the Sun Star.
He called for growers and retailers to work together with the government to make Mindanao the Philippines’ leader in fruit production and agribusiness.
The announcement came at the 1st Mindanao Fruit Industry Council (Minfruit) Market Encounter held recently in Davao. The event was organised by the Minfruit Council, the Department of Agriculture High Value Commercial Crops programme and the USAID’s Growth with Equity for Mindanao group.
Mr Yap pushed for continuing partnerships that brought investment in the island’s agriculture, and committed to rapid modernisation of Mindanao’s rural infrastructure, credit facilitation, research, post-harvest facilities, market linkage and development.
He also promised extended hot water treatment tanks for mango groups Davao del Sur Mango Association and General Santos-Sarangani Fruit Cooperative, with the hopes of boosting export to China.
The department is also in bilateral and multilateral negotiations to expand exports of Philippine produce to South Korea, the Netherlands, the Middle East, Guam and Hawaii.
In response to rising transport costs, Mr Yap urged growers to use the expanding RORO system – the roll on, roll off ferry network begun a few years ago on the island of Basilan that has seen around 40 per cent growth in the last year.
The Market Encounter event also saw an agreement signed between Agricultural Nurture Inc. and a number of fruit growers’ cooperatives under the Minfruit council to buy bananas and mangos at set prices.
