Guimaras festival dishes out 9 tons of mangoes

GUIMARAS ISLAND—Thousands of tourists flocked to Guimaras Island’s Manggahan Festival in a sign that the island had recovered from one of the country’s worst oil spill disasters.

The mango eat-all-you-can feast was the most anticipated event in the annual festival held from April 10 to 22 to mark the province’s founding anniversary.

For a fee, guests could eat as many mangoes as they could in a 30-minute period. The fee was P70 for ripe mangoes, P85 for ripe mangoes with ibos (sticky rice wrapped in coconut leaves) and P40 for green mangoes with ginamos (shrimp paste).

“We had to impose a time limit because in the previous festivals, guests couldn’t get enough and ate for hours limiting the number of visitors we can accommodate,” said Sandra Gaitan of the provincial agriculture office, which organized the event.

Among those who came was Marble Salcedo, of San Joaquin town in Iloilo, who was with six friends.

“This is my first time and it’s fun,” Salcedo told Inquirer.

Daniel Bermejo, of Nueva Valencia town in Guimaras, said he went twice, finishing 12 mangoes the first time and 16 the next.

Gaitan said some visitors managed to consume 7 kilograms of mangoes in one sitting.

Guimaras Governor Felipe Nava said mangoes of the province would soon become a registered trademark.

He said the Intellectual Property Office is in the process of registering Guimaras mangoes as a geographical brand.

Provincial agriculturist Ronnie Morante said at least 9.1 metric tons of mangoes were consumed in the eat-all-you-can event.

Morante said the production of Guimaras mangoes, known for their sweetness, had increased last year to 8,701 MT after it suffered a decline from 2008 to 2010 because of extreme weather changes.

Production this year was expected to reach 10,800 MT, he said.