SAN MATEO, ISABELA, Philippines — Mango farmers in this town in Isabela province were experiencing a glut in harvest with not enough buyers, forcing some of them to dump more than 3,000 kilos of unsold mangoes on the roadside as prices dropped due to oversupply.
“Almost all mango farmers flock to [public] markets to sell mangoes. There are even more sellers than buyers, literally,” Frederick Cayaban, 44, a resident of Barangay Villa Magat here, told the Inquirer on Sunday.
Cayaban bewailed the P5 to P7 a kilo buying price being offered to farmers by middlemen and wholesalers.
“We spend for labor, food, transport delivery, among others. How can we survive with the very low prices? Hence, we just leave them rotting,” he added. He also gave free mangoes to his neighbors rather than let these rot.
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The dumping of the unsold mangoes along the roadside in San Mateo town was caught on video on May 10 and went viral after it was posted on social media.
Cayaban, who operates his 2,500-tree farms in Isabela and in nearby Alfonso Lista town in Ifugao province, said he would usually pay his workers P5 for every kilo of harvested mango and also spend it on their food, on top of the cost of gasoline, transportation and other expenses incurred during harvest season.
“I usually spend more than P14,000 per truck trip aside from food, diesel, among others,” he said.
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Available help
Rosario Paccarangan, the agribusiness and marketing division chief of the Department of Agriculture (DA) in Cagayan Valley, said they offered the free use of a truck to Cayaban and other mango farmers in delivering goods to Kadiwa stores in Isabela province and other outlets “to help them lessen expenses.”
“The mango farmers should contact us in advance so that we can make a schedule for them,” Paccarangan told Inquirer in an interview on Sunday.
She said that mango farmers could also receive help from the DA in the processing of mangoes into products like pickled mangoes, dried mango chips, mango jam and others.
However, Paccarangan also noted that some farmers would sometimes use “kalburo” (calcium carbide) to prematurely ripen their produce, leading to an excess in production.
Calcium carbide (CaC2) is a chemical mainly used to make fertilizers and in welding for the production of acetylene.
Although banned in many countries due to its harmful effects when ingested in large quantities, CaC2 is still used in the Philippines to artificially ripen fruits.
“It is also normal that there are some rotten and soft mangoes that the wholesalers will not buy, so it may be part of what the farmers throw away,” she added.