Mindanao fruit processors venture into nontraditional products

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Mindanao fruit processors are diversifying into nontraditional products, in order to expand their domestic and foreign market reach, a statement of the United States Agency for International Development-funded Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) Program has said. "The market is looking for good [alternative] fruit products, and processors are always on the lookout for buyers," the GEM statement quoted Mar Marantan, general manager of Linkage Food Ventures Corporation, as saying. While Mindanao is now established as an exporter of select fresh tropical fruits — mainly banana, pineapple and papaya — as well as of processed products like banana chips and pineapple juice, a number of processors are venturing into "nontraditional" dried, puréed and frozen fruit products. Last year, the island shipped out more than 24 MT of dried mango, papaya and pineapple worth approximately $1.15 million to markets in the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates, data compiled by GEM showed. In the same year, Mindanao also exported about 2,250 MT of mango and other fruit juices worth about $1.262 million to the US, South Korea, Australia, Hong Kong and Japan. Linkage Food Ventures and other suppliers of both traditional and new fruit products will be attending the 1st Minfruit Market Encounter on July 31 to August 1 at the Green Heights Business and Convention Center, Diversion Road, Buhangin, Davao City. The event is organized by the Mindanao Fruit Industry Development (Minfruit) Council with support from the Department of Agriculture, the GEM Program, and local producer associations. The event will serve as a venue for buyers and processors to present their volume and quality requirements to local fruit producers. It will also highlight the latest farming and post-harvest handling technologies, to help growers meet export market standards. Linkage Food Ventures, a subsidiary of Jentec Storage Inc., started its Davao operations early in 2008, producing mango and calamansi purée. Linkage, which is capable of producing 1,000 liters of mango purée per hour, operates a cold storage plant and hot water treatment facility in the city. GEM, which assisted Jentec in establishing links with fruit growers in the Davao and Cotabato provinces, is implemented under the oversight of the Mindanao Economic Development Council. - BusinessWorld