Cotabato province joins durian export bandwagon to China

COTABATO province is joining the China durian export bandwagon following neighboring Davao, which helped open up the market, provincial officials said.

“I hope that the price of durian per kilo to China will be favorable to the farmers,” Governor Emmylou J. Talino-Mendoza said during the April 6 ceremonial dispatch of the first shipment to China. 

Ms. Mendoza said participation in the international durian trade will boost the province’s agricultural sector, which is already among the Philippines’ top 10 producers of rice and corn, rubber, banana and coconut, and other high-value crops.

Cotabato’s durian production will be part of the five-year industry development plan that is being mapped out by the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) Davao office. 

Davao Regional Director Abel James I. Monteagudo said the plan includes increasing technical support and providing quality planting materials and other farm inputs to growers, and establishing post-harvest facilities.

Marila L. Corpuz, Davao agriculture technical director for operations, said the agency is also working out partnerships for expansion to ensure sustained production.

“We have so much demand in China. We are looking into an expansion area and we will partner with some investors to invest in production to maintain the yield,” she said.

“Today, we will be shipping 18 metric tons to China and that is only the beginning, and more durian stakeholders will be partnering with us,” she said.

The DA’s Davao office received on April 3 China’s notice of approval for the Protocol of Phytosanitary Requirements, which was signed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. in January during his meeting with Chinese officials led by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Jose D. Cubol, board director of the Durian Industry Association of Davao City, said durian for export to China was priced at P85 per kilo, about five times the P15/k rate they command for domestic sales.

“Exporting durian to China will help boost income,” said Mr. Cubol, an agrarian reform beneficiary who now runs a 28-hectare durian plantation in Davao City’s Calinan District.

Mr. Monteagudo said there is optimism that durian exports to China will open the way for other agricultural commodities.

“We are hopeful that more locally produced fruits, including coconut and bananas, are to be shipped to China in the coming months,” he said. — Maya M. Padillo