MATI, Davao Oriental – Mango growers in Davao Oriental province met here recently to tackle important issues that would stabilize prices of mango in Davao Region.

At least 30 mango farmers here and in the town of Banaybanay have talked to the mango industry cluster team led by Antonio Teh of the Davao Industry Cluster Capacity Enhancement Project (Diccep) on synchronizing the growing and harvesting of mango in the province.

According to Teh, there is a need to get together and agree on having different time schedules for growing and harvesting of mango.

“Synchronizing the production of mango will make some mango farmers induce the flowering of the fruit at a certain time, while others are into different stages of fruit growth,” Teh said.

He explained this would ensure that all mango plantations will not harvest the fruit at the same time.

The cluster team will also conduct similar meetings with all other mango growers and farmers in Davao del Norte, Compostela Valley, Island Garden City of Samal, Davao City and Davao del Sur in the coming months.

Low buying prices by traders and mango processors gripped the mango farmers in the region for years since they all harvest their mangoes almost at the same time, creating an oversupply in the local market.

Teh also said that mango growers want to export their fruit, but many of them find it very difficult to reach this goal because of the very high standards of export-quality mango.

Haunted by low production and low quality, Teh said most of the growers sell their fruit to domestic traders and fruit processors, who in turn, will process their mangoes into dried mango, mango concentrated juice and mango puree.

Meanwhile, an industrial consultant of a foreign funding agency has eyed some bright market opportunities for mango farmers who are engaged in growing and production of dwarf carabao mangoes in Davao Region.

Tetsuo Inooka, senior industrial adviser of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), said that mango farmers devoting their efforts to improve the productivity and quality of dwarf mangoes to big carabao mangoes have bright future in their venture.

As this developed, Inooka urged the mango farmers in the region to unite as one strong group in order to solve its problems in production and growing of good quality mangoes from dwarf trees.

He said the global market for mangoes in Japan, US, Europe and other places worldwide is so vast and has not been yet fully tapped due to low production of this fruit.