Rolando T. Dy is the Vice-Chair of the M.A.P. AgriBusiness and Countryside Development Committee, and the Executive Director of the Center for Food and AgriBusiness of the University of Asia & the Pacific. Dy recently visited Jakarta and Taipei, where he observed a range of processed and packaged exotic fruits such as dried jackfruit, snake fruit and pineapple biscuits.
Dy reports that the Philippines are second in the world in terms of banana exports, first in the export of banana chips, second in the export of fresh and canned pineapples and the leader in dried mango exports.
But he considers that the country is neglecting other fruits with market potential: avocado, carambola (balimbing), dragon fruit, guyabano, jackfruit, marang, to name some. Most are produced on a backyard scale and thus, have a limited and declining supply, which makes them unsuitable for processing due to the fact that processing plants require a large and steady raw material supply.
To read the full article on how Dy believes that the Philippines should follow Malaysia's model for growing and processing these fruits, please click here.
