After a couple of slow seasons, the Philippines' mango industry is expecting a return to form this year thanks to a dry spell cause by the El Niño weather phenomenon.
This is according to the country's agriculture secretary Arthur Yap, who told the National Mango Congress last Wednesday the weather pattern helps mango flowering.
"Last year, the national mango harvest in the country reached 771,200 tonnes, which is lower by 13 per cent compared to what we produced in 2008," Mr Yap told the congress.
Despite this, the mango industry still contributed a significant amount to the country's agricultural coffers, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported.
"Some 30,200 tonnes of fresh, processed and dried mangoes worth US$34.6m were exported to about 50 countries worldwide from January to October," Mr Yap said.
The decline in production throughout 2008/09 was due to typhoons and rains in strong mango-producing regions like Pangasinan, which makes up almost 40 per cent of the national production.
Governor Amado Espino Jr said although the country ranks sixth among top mango producers in the world, it was only exporting around six per cent of its total production.
"We still have big potential to export more fresh mangoes, and even greater potential to export more mangoes in processed form," Mr Espino said.
"We must also promote the use of organic farming as an indispensable means to upgrade the quality of our mangoes to eventually satisfy, if not surpass, the very rigid standards of the foreign market."
