THE Department of Agriculture (DA) said it will do its best to eliminate a pest that has prevented Palawan from exporting its locally grown mangoes for three decades now.
“The DA will provide the province an irradiation machine that will detect and kill weevils in infected mangoes,” Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Pinol said in a statement
on Tuesday.
Since the detection of mango-pulp weevil (MPW) in 1987, Palawan has not been allowed to trade locally produced mangoes outside the province in order to prevent the spread of the pest in other mango-producing areas.
“The mango pulp weevil Sternochetus frigicus is hereby declared as an injurious and dangerous pest of mangoes,” said former Agriculture Secretary and now Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III in the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) Special Quarantine Administrative Order 20, Series of 1987.
Pinol said the mango growers in the province should organize themselves and implement good agricultural practices in mango production to help contain or eliminate the spread of MPW in Palawan.
He said the DA will provide Palawan-based mango growers with drying facilities and mango-processing equipment to allow them to produce world-class processed mango products.
“We will design a machine capable of processing dried mangoes and mango purée until the canning stage so that it would be ready for the market. With this, you will no longer export fresh mangoes,” he said.
A study conducted by the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute of the Department of Science Technology and the DA Regional Office 4B proved irradiation treatment is effective in eliminating MPW.
Currently, mango growers apply vapor-heat treatment for mangoes bound for export. The process is not effective against MPW.
In February 2013 the US, through the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, declared the Philippines as a freedom area for mango pulp and seed weevil (MSW), except
for Palawan.
The declaration allowed Philippine mangoes sourced from any province, except from Palawan, to enter the US mainland market.
Before the Philippines was declared MSW-and MPW-free by the US Department of Agriculture, the BPI conducted a nationwide low-monitoring survey for MPW and MSW in different areas in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.
The survey was done in 15 regions and 50 mango-growing provinces. Six regions and 20 provinces were surveyed in Luzon; three regions and 10 provinces in the Visayas; and six regions and 20 provinces in Mindanao.
Last year Manila and Canberra signed an amended Specific Commodity Understanding for Australia’s importation of fresh mangoes from the Philippines.
The signing formalized Australia’s recognition of the area-freedom status of the Philippines from MSW and MPW, except for the island of Palawan.