Tuesday, July 29, 2008 Processors turn to non-traditional fruit products
MINDANAO fruit processors are diversifying into non-traditional products to expand their domestic and foreign market reach.
"The market is looking for good (alternative) fruit products, and processors are always on the lookout for buyers," said Mar Marantan, general manager of Linkage Food Ventures Corporation, which recently shipped samples of its passion fruit juice products to potential buyers.
While Mindanao is now well-established as an exporter of fresh tropical fruit -- mainly banana, pineapple and papaya -- as well as banana chips and pineapple juice, a number of processors are venturing into "nontraditional" dried, pure‚ and frozen fruit products.
In 2007, Mindanao also shipped out about 2,250 metric tons of mango and other fruit juices worth approximately US$1,261,580 to markets in the US, South Korea, Australia, Hong Kong, and Japan.
Linkage Food Ventures and other suppliers of both traditional and new fruit products will be attending the 1st Minfruit Market Encounter on July 31 to August 1, 2008 at the Green Heights Business and Convention Center, Diversion Road, Buhangin, Davao City.
The Market Encounter is organized by the Mindanao Fruit Industry Development (Minfruit) Council with support from the Department of Agriculture, the GEM Program, and local producer associations.
The event will serve as a venue for buyers and processors to present their volume and quality requirements to local fruit producers.
It will also highlight the latest farming and post-harvest handling technologies, to help growers meet export market standards.
Linkage Food Ventures Corporation, a subsidiary of Jentec Storage Inc., started its Davao operations early in 2008, producing mango and calamansi pure.
Linkage is capable of producing 1,000 liters of mango pure‚ per hour, and also operates a cold storage plant and hot water treatment facility in the city.
The GEM Program, which assisted Jentec in establishing links with fruit growers in the Davao and Cotabato provinces, is implemented under the oversight of the Mindanao Economic Development Council.
