THE Durian Industry Council of Davao City (DICDC) said the harvest season for durian will be earlier this year, but low production is expected due to drought.
Larry Miculob, president of DICDC, said during Monday's (April 8) Kapehan sa Dabaw at The Annex of SM City Davao, that there are a lot of durian flowers sprouting after Tropical Depression Chedeng and isolated rains in the city.
“The good news is that our durian season might be early this year. It would fall in August, yan ang expectation namin. Ang durian papasok sa August, panahon ng Kadayawan, expect a lot of durian. On the other hand, the production might go down this year,” he said.
However, what they are worried now is the possible effect of El Niño, even though Davao City is not directly affected by it. The warm temperature brought by El Niño, though, will affect the production of durian this year.
“Hopefully, ang expectation namo kung magpadayon ni og El Niño, although we are not that affected here in Davao, pero medyo taas-taas gihapon ang init. Ang amo man gud dapat maka-recover ang punoan, maka-fertilize ang mga farmers aron dali maka-recover (We may not be affected directly by El Niño but the heat is still too much. The trees must recover and farmers could fertilize),” he added.
Last year, he reported that there was high durian production. It was observed, however, that only a few were released to the market, and it was attributed to the three processors who entered Davao City.
These three processors targeted export market and the high demand in Manila, thus, the circulation in the local market was reduced.
In Davao City, some 3,000 hectares of land are being planted with durian. But with the growing demand, the production is no longer sufficient since there is no expansion in terms of land area. Thus, Miculob encouraged farmers to engage in durian growing because of its potential.
“So we are encouraging even diri sa Davao City to expand at least 1,000 hectares every year para sa atoang production (We encourage that Davao could expand to at least 1,000 hectares every year to increase production),” he said.
Davao City is the biggest producer of durian, supplying around 80 percent of the total Philippine production.
“Ang direction man gud namo sa durian industry, we will not limit for the Davao City, we would like to see na ang durian industry will expand in Mindanao because dili man ta maagian (og bagyo) ang Mindanao so we should capitalize on this opportunity for the other farmers lalo na sa BARMM area (We try not to limit durian production in Davao but expand it in Mindanao since the island is not usually hit by typhoon),” he added.