THE Durian Industry Council of Davao City (DICDC) submitted a comprehensive request to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) for additional durian freezing facilities to help them fasten processing of larger volume of exported frozen durian.
Larry Miculob, president of DICDC, said during a weekly press conference at Habi at Kape in Abreeza Mall that the production capacity of frozen durian in the region is only around three tons per day. If the council’s request to DTI will be approved, the capacity will increase to around 150 tons per day.
Miculob also said that this lack of proper and standardized freezing equipment in the region is one of the greatest barriers of the durian business industry which makes them unable to cater to bigger export quantity demands of frozen durian.
For 2016, four 40-feet container vans of frozen durians were shipped to China but due to lack of bilateral trade agreements, the shipments took 10 more days to reach China as they had to be shipped through countries like Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia first. This connecting shipment procedure is primarily done for legal documenting purposes only.
According to Miculob, this is such a disadvantage given that we can only produce so much with our facilities and yet we still have extra expenses for logistics and we lose our branding.
For next year, China has ordered a total of 100 container vans of frozen durians and DICDC will try to serve this huge amount of order. Miculob also said that if only our freezing equipment is world-class and standardized, it would be easier. He also added that most of the durian freezing facilities in the region are “backyard” or small-scale.
The freezing facility that the DICDC requested from DTI was proposed to be a five-hectare plant with five processing lines intended for freezing and storage. It would cost around P350 million but is also expected to open about a hundred jobs.
It will be located near Agri Pinoy Trading Center in Daliao, Toril, Davao City.
Presently, DTI has yet to give any feedback to the request.
Although Miculob added that if approved, this might be included in the 2018 budget already.