THE production of durian in Davao City decreased by about 40 percent for 2016 due to the recent El Niño that hit the country last summer, according to the Durian Industry Council of Davao City (DICDC).
Larry Miculob said in a weekly presscon at Abreeza last Wednesday that the recent El Niño greatly affected the production of fruits for export produced by Davao City, most especially durian.
Miculob said that the production decreased by a little over 100 tons.
During El Niño, a lot of trees died and the DICDC is doing what they can to produce more fruits even with less bearing trees still available.
The demand for frozen durian has gone up especially for China with a hundred 40-feet container vans order of frozen durian for 2017.
DICDC had considered getting durian from other plantations near the city to fill up the export orders.
But Miculob explained that the durian plantations in Bukidnon and Cotabato are not yet of production quantity while in Davao del Norte, the plantations have yet to be fully rehabilitated from after Typhoon Pablo hit the area in 2012.
Miculob is positive that next year will be a good year for durian since as per initial forecast from the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, weather conditions for 2017 will be less hot compared to the summer of 2016.
With this initial weather forecast, Miculob hopes that the production of durian in the city will start recovering.
The harvest of durian is usually at its peak from July to October and at its lowest from February to April.
Aside from durian, there is also a high quantity of export orders for mango, banana, pineapple, and papaya.