Growers level up, eye Middle East market for Davao pummelos

Davao pomelo (Photo courtesy of PH Wow)

DAVAO CITY — The Davao Pummelo growers are positioning the region’s pummelo to foreign markets particularly the Middle East.

Andrew Tan, president of the Davao Pummelo Stakeholder’s Association Inc. (DPSAI), said one of the foreign markets they are eyeing is the Middle East (ME) and they already sent samples of Davao’s pummelos to M.E.

Tan said that from the 1,159 hectares of pummelo plantations in Davao Region in 2011, this has expanded to 3,000 at present.

He said the Davao region’s pummelo growers are still relying on domestic markets but are trying its best to capture the foreign market given the export quality of Davao’s pummelos.

“Hopefully we can get the M.E,” Tan said.

The association, he said, is composed of about 12 active members with about 5 to 10 hectares of pummelo farms. The association consists of the small pummelo growers. The big ones, among others, are Davao Golden, Nenita, and Sodaco.

To further improve the industry which according to Tan is constantly growing, DPSAI will implement its Code of Practice (COP) within this year.

The COP is designed to set a standard for the Davao Pummelo industry, Tan said, adding the COP aims to establish a geographical indication (GI) for the Davao pummelo.

DPSAI consultant Patrick Belisario said they have already finalized the COP and will have it registered with the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL). Belisario and Peter Dumary, DPSAI’s foreign consultant from the European Union are currently validating the COP to ensure if these practices are actualized by the growers.

Tan said they already submitted the protocol to the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) for Geographical Indications (GI).

The GI is the agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) that includes protection for geographical indications.

The GI is defined as “indications which identify a good as originating in the territory of a member, or a region or locality in that territory, where has a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to its geographical origin”.

He said “even without still the approved protocol, the active members of Davao pomelo growers have started implementing the required standardized steps if only to maintain if not improve the quality of Davao pomelo”.

He said the reputation of Davao pomelo has already been known to be of good quality and this is what we wanted to sustain.

“We do not want to fall below the standard and that substandard products can find their way to the market” he said.

Tan said it is the Magallanes variety that these growers produce in Davao.

“But as much as possible we wanted only the best pomelo of Magallanes variety that is sweet and juicy to be marketed not only in Davao but around the country and hopefully to the foreign market,” Tan said.

The Davao Region has five big producers of pomelos with about 12 active small producers with areas covering 5 hectares to less than 50 hectares.

He said there could be more producers of pomelo in Davao and unless they become members of the DPSA, Inc. they can adopt the Davao brand.

Tan also said that they are in the process of conducting audit among their members even as he said that they are closely monitoring the implementation of the protocol. Tan sees an improved production once the protocol will be fully implemented.

Once the production of the Davao pomelo be standardized, Tan expect a marked improvement on the growth of the product including its yield.

Right now, he said the volume of production is pegged at 300,000 tons per annum.