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RP mangoes find its way to US
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Posted on May 02 2002
After more than 15 years of negotiations, the Philippines will finally be exporting fresh mangoes to the United States on the first week of May, thus penetrating the $220 million fresh mango trade in the US now being dominated by Mexico.
In a briefing after a call by officials of the Mango Exporters Association on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Malacañang, Agriculture Undersecretary Ernesto Ordonez said the first shipment, consisting of 200-400 boxes of mangoes grown in Guimaras, will be flown to Los Angeles, California.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Attaché Michael Woolsey also accompanied Ordonez and the country’s top mango growers during their call on the President.
Ordonez said that the Philippines would not have any difficulty in competing with Mexican mangoes in the U.S. market, adding that in fact, mangoes exported to the US from Mexico are called Manila mangoes.
“So, we think that we have an easy time there because in a sense Manila mango from Mexico has paved the way for the Philippines’ super mango,” Ordonez said.
Woolsey said his government is “very excited” over the very first shipment of Philippine mangoes to California, saying that Americans will now have a chance “to taste the delicious carabao mangoes for the first time.”
“The U.S. is the largest market for Philippine food and beverage exports and we want to see that trade relationship between the two countries would continue to grow, and so I congratulate the mango industry and wish you much success,” Woolsey said.
Woolsey said that aside from mangoes, the US is also “very interested” at looking at other tropical products from the Philippines that could be exported to the U.S.
A team of quarantine inspectors from the US arrived last week in Manila and began inspecting four existing vapor heat treatment facilities to see if they could pass rigid U.S. accreditation procedures.
The facilities, all located at the Food Terminal, Inc. in Taguig, Metro Manila, are the same devices under which local fresh mangoes pass through before they are exported to countries like Japan, South Korea and Australia.
