PERTH, Western Australia — Davao’s mangoes made history on Friday night as the first shipment of Philippine variety to make it to Australia.
The Philippine Carabao mangoes, sourced from Magsaysay and Bansalan in Davao del Sur, were the first batch of fresh mango exports to land in Australia after a 10-year wait.
The shipment containing 141 boxes was delivered at 9:40 pm. It was carried to Perth on a Philippine Airlines flight last Thursday.
“This is history. We waited a long time for this,” said Melissa Aguasa, distributor of the fresh mangoes in Western Australia.
The mangoes sold out quickly after six hours at Aguasa’s Melissa’s Filipino Shop.
Australia is known to be very strict with agriculture exports.
The Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Plant Industry (DA-BPI), Bureau of Customs (BOC), and the Philippine Airlines (PAL) paved the way to the historic shipment by supporting the Hi-Las Marketing Corporation for the recommencement of fresh mango exports to Australia with a send off ceremony last September 6, 2023.
The simple send-off ceremony at the PAL Cargo Terminal was led by DA-BPI Assistant Director for Research, Development and Production Support Services Herminigilda Gabertan, BOC NAIA Customhouse Export Division Chief Calil Dimangadap, Hi-Las President/CEO Roberto Angelo Amores II, exporter Joseph Bautista, and PAL Cargo Sales International Account Executive Adriane Placido.
The initial shipment of 1,500 kilograms of fresh carabao mangoes from Davao to Sydney and Perth marked the first mango export from the Philippines to Australia in ten years.
“Since 2013 pa po kasi ang last nating export ng mango to Australia, so this a big step towards our mango industry development considering na kailangang kailangan po natin talagang i-promote ang ganitong mga produkto sa labas ng ating bansa,” Assistant Director Gabertan said.
She also thanked the exporters from Hi-Las and other partners in the private sector and assured them that the government, particularly the DA-BPI and the BPI-National Plant Quarantine Services Division (NPQSD), will always be there to assist them.
“With this commencement of the export to Australia, we hope that we are able to ship more of our good quality products across the globe para bumalik ulit tayo sa mercado. We’re very thankful for the opportunity talaga that we are able to penetrate some new foreign market again. Hopefully, this will result to higher export volume,” Amores said. (With a report from DA)
