By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

PHILIPPINE mangoes can now enter U.S. jurisdictions in the Pacific which will help enhance the CNMI’s mango agri-business, according to Department of Land and Natural Resources Secretary Ignacio Dela Cruz.
He said the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s plant protection quarantine chief, Dallas Berringer, informed them on Wednesday last week that fresh mangoes coming from all parts of the Philippines can now enter to the CNMI, Guam and Hawaii.
This is the result of the installation of a USDA-standard fruit treatment facility in the central Philippine province of Guimaras,
The facility provides the only acceptable method for fresh mangoes to be imported to the U.S.
The method, Dela Cruz said, is called the vapor-heat treatment which was not available in the Philippines before, so no mangoes from anywhere in the Philippines could be imported to any U.S. jurisdiction.
Now that the facility is operating in the Philippines, importers on Saipan and Guam can bring mangoes from the Southeast Asian country in commercial shipments, he said.
There is a good market for mangoes in the CNMI, Dela Cruz said, but the problem is Saipan’s own mangoes are not available the whole year round unlike those in the Philippines.
For this reason, he said, the importation of Philippine mangoes will complement the mango business in the CNMI.
The importation of
Philippine mangoes is good not only for locals but for tourists too, Dela Cruz said.
“If we have some local merchants who will concentrate on making the mangoes available the year round, it will help,” he added.
“You know, when the tourists see the Philippine mangoes, they are going to be happy to buy them in local stores,” he said.
Dela Cruz said DLNR continues to encourage Saipan growers to expand the local mango agri-business.
DLNR, he said, may hire somebody from the Philippines to help local growers produce quality mangoes on island.