With the demand for Durian in the Chinese market, the Davao City Agriculturist Office (CAgrO) is conducting various Philippine Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) training for the city’s Durian farmers to ensure that their products meet the export quality standard for them to acquire the necessary farm code.
Ms. Fe Oguio, the focal person for fruit production of the CAgrO, said in an interview with the Madayaw Program over the city-owned Davao City Disaster Radio on Wednesday that around 90% of the country’s Durian production is from Mindanao, and 70% of it is from Davao City.
After reaching a bilateral agreement with China to export fresh Durian, the CAgrO, in partnership with the Durian Industry Association, continues to give technical assistance to Durian farmers to increase the number of farmers participating in the export market.
Durian farmers are also encouraged to join their GAP training and to reach out to exporters. Oguio said that the city has a lot of approved exporters in need of Durian sourced directly from farms with farm codes as it is what the Chinese market requires.
As of the first shipment on April 5, Oguio stated that around 555 metric tons of Durian were exported to China. Recent data on the exported fresh Durian is yet to be released by the PQS, but according to Oguio, they were now able to export approximately more than 1,000 metric tons of Durian.
Oguio also said that the bilateral agreement with China came with a set of export guidelines that farmers and exporters need to follow.
“Sa guidelines, nakabutang didto nga dapat ang farm nga mag supply sa Durian, dapat coded, ang planta nga magpadala didto dapat coded, for traceability purposes (Based on the guidelines, the farms supplying the Durian products needs to have a farm code, as well as the plant for traceability purposes),” she said.
Currently,150 Durian farms already have a farm code, and the majority of them are already GAP-certified.
CAgro also invited Durian farmers and people interested in venturing into Durian farming to register and join the First Asia Durian Summit on October 25–27 at SMX Davao. Resource speakers from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand will be present at the summit.
“With the summit, we are hoping nga diha nato makita unsa ang mga innovations nga pwede ma-introduce (We are hoping that through the summit we will be able to identify the innovations that we can introduce to our Durian industry),” Oguio said. CIO
