Philippines’ largest dried fruit producer to put up 2nd factory in Cambodia

MANILA, Philippines — Profood International Corp., the country’s largest dried fruit producer Profood International Corp. is building a second factory in Cambodia for the production of dried mangoes to be able to compete with cheaper products offered by neighboring countries.

Amid low supply and the high price of fresh mangoes in the Philippines, the firm has set its sights overseas for future expansion and construction of production facilities.

Profood International president Justin Uy told reporters the firm’s second production facility in Cambodia is  expected to be operational by 2021.

He said the new plant would have a capacity of 3,000 tons per year, the same as its first factory in Cambodia which started operations last year.

 “Our Cambodian factory will help serve our clients if the Philippines cannot supply,” he said.

Profood currently has 14 facilities spread out in the Philippines with a capacity of about 10,000 tons per year for dried mango.

Profood decided to expand in Cambodia as the price of mangoes there is at least half the price of those in the Philippines.

Uy said mangoes from the Philippines are currently priced at around P40 to P50 per kilo.

With production operations in Cambodia, he said the company is able to compete with other countries like Thailand, Vietnam and China which sell dried mangoes at a cheaper price.

“Because here, if I will push to produce more, the price of mango would continue to go up. Demand cannot cope with supply. There is not enough supply,” he said.

Dried mango produced from Profood’s Cambodian facility is sold under the brand Fruit Asia.

Uy said Profood sells the Fruit Asia dried mangoes to buyers who want affordable products, while those produced in the Philippines are offered to those looking for premium products.

“Philippine mango has achieved a name in the world market but we have priced ourselves too high now. That’s why I need to have an alternate.

This way, I don’t lose out to competition and I can continue to grow,” he said.

At present, Profood accounts for half of the dried mango market in the world.

While Thailand producers, which hold the second spot in the dried mango Market, are still far from Profood’s share in the market, Uy said those manufacturers have an advantage in terms of access to lower priced raw materials.

For future expansions, he said the firm is looking at building facilities in Cambodia and Africa.

“When you are talking about international market,  you have to be competitive in pricing. You should able to deliver the product on time. So, that’s why our next expansion are all outside the Philippines to compete with the other countries,” he said.

He said no timeline has been set for building a factory in Africa yet, but the firm has been scouting for locations in that region as far as six or seven years ago, given its supply of mango and proximity to Europe.

Since Profood was established in 1978, Uy said he never imagined he would have to expand overseas.

“Only in the last 10 years when I do not have enough mango to supply to the world market,” he said.

He said he is hopeful supply in the Philippines could improve, particularly in Mindanao where Profood now sources 40 percent of its mango requirements.

Previously, Profood was only getting mangoes from Luzon and Visayas.