New invented ice cream seen to drive ARMM's economy

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - The agriculture department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) now boasts of a marang ice cream which economists said can boost prices of a seasonal fruit so cheap due to excessive harvest surplus.

The marang fruit (artocarpus odoratissimus) is so abundant in all of the ARMM’s scattered Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi provinces.

Makmod Mending Jr., regional secretary of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries in the autonomous region, on Friday launched the ARMM’s first ever marang ice cream, invented by Nilda Longno.

Food technicians and researchers in Mending’s office helped Longno study how to produce a marang ice cream that is halal and nutritious.

The term halal refers to food Muslims can eat, which is free from contaminants that are called haram, which is Arabic for forbidden, such as pork and alcohol.

Officials and journalists present in the launching program, held at the ARMM’s Integrated Agricultural Research Center in nearby Sultan Kudarat town in Maguindanao, were served with marang ice cream, made up of the fruit’s whitish flesh, mixed with milk and sugar.

The marang fruit is similar with jackfruit, which is called langka in most Filipino vernaculars.

Mending said the ARMM government will give Longno due recognition for her invention.

Mending said a large-scale production of marang ice cream will surely increase the demand for the fruit.

“If there is a high demand for this fruit farmers that have marang trees in their farms will earn extra income,” Mending said.

Mending said they intend to put up a good marang ice cream industry in the autonomous region with the help of the regional government’s trade and industry department.