As the Institutional Partner (IP) of the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) on the implementation of the “Market Advancement through Nurturing and Greening” Operations to Enable Sustainability in Region 2 (MANGOES 02)” project, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Region 2 has started rolling out the project to the pilot beneficiaries in Rizal, Cagayan in January 2017.

The project is a re-entry plan of Ms. Tessie Isidra Guitering of DTI Cagayan which aims to improve the productivity and marketability of mangoes through value enhancements that would dictate higher price of the produce in the region and improve the bargaining power of its mango stakeholders.

Through the MANGOES -2 Project, focus group discussions with the mango growers of barangay Illuru, Sur, Rizal, Cagayan were initiated to elicit major reasons on why the mango industry of the municipality has remained unnoticed and undervalued.

Among the identified reasons include the lack of infrastructure and input resources, technology and technical gaps and monopolized buying resulting to very low price.

Aside from FGDs, a market assessment survey was also conducted to gather more information on the current scenario of the industry in the municipality.

With the introduction of the project, the mango growers gained new hope and optimism in revitalizing the industry amidst the drastic damaged caused by the recent Typhoon Lawin. Their commitment and cooperation is evident as they are now on the process of registering a mango growers association with the Department of Labor and Employment.

On the part of DTI Region 2, the agency has lined- up several activities to help the stakeholders. These include among others a Seminar-Training on Vallue Additions of Carabao Mangoes through Quality Improvement and a Workshop on Branding and Marketing Strategy.