DAVAO CITY — The market will be flooded with Durian fruit with the forthcoming bumper harvest come August this year.
In an interview with SODACO officer Edgardo Lagman, he said that after the long dry spell SODACO is anticipating a tremendous increase in yield.
He cited that in their three farms (in Davao City and Sultan Kudarat) the aggregate volume of production from June to October 2007 would be about 1.3 million kilos of fruits planted in 200 hectares of land.
As this developed and with the successful market run spearheaded by the Davao Region Durian Council in Cebu City, the marketing campaign will move to Manila this year.
The new feature of the marketing campaign in Manila is the free tasting. The venue will still be decided whether at the Mall of Asia or at SM Megamall, he said.
The Cebu event held at the grounds of SM City had a total sale of 30 tons in one month with the fruit priced at P75 per kilo.
He said there is a need to increase the per capita consumption of Filipinos of the Durian fruit as current data showed that Filipinos only consume 250 grams as against the Thailand figure of 15 kilos.
The Philippines, he said only has a total of 15,000 hectares planted to Durian as against Thailand with 150,000.
Durian has not really gone out of Mindanao because majority of those that eat Durian are from the island, he said.
He said they wanted to teach and advocate the fruit to other Filipinos, the fruit that is also rich in potassium. (PIA XI/prixdbanzon).
Food
