Profood rolls out overseas expansion

CEBU, Philippines —  As the Philippines’ supply of fresh mango continues to dwindle, dried mango exporter Profood International Corporation rolls out a plan to establish plants in other Southeast Asian countries.

In an interview with Profood founder Justin Uy, he said that the Philippines can no longer keep up with the strong demand for processed mango products such as dried mangoes, and that the company has to go out and build plants closer to mango producing countries like Vietnam.

Uy said although countries like Cambodia, Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia produce inferior quality compared to the Philippines, demand is still strong.

The Philippine mangoes however will be processed for premium products to high end market.

“China market is unlimited,” Uy explaining that demand for fruit-based products in China is tremendously growing.

Already, Profood has set up its first overseas plant in Cambodia recently, Uy said the company is working on the opening of another manufacturing plant in Vietnam.

“We can’t expand in Cebu or in the Philippines anymore. We don’t have enough supply," Uy reiterated.

While the Philippine mangoes are still the best, the Cebu factory will continue to cater the premium markets like United States and Japan.

The China market alone demands at least 40 metric tons of dried mango products a year. If the Philippine mango produced will be the only source, it cannot cater the big China market, Uy added.

Based on latest report from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the country posted  a downtrend of 5.4 percent in the volume of production of mango during the third quarter of 2017 with 55.44 thousand metric tons against the third quarter of 2016 level of 58.60 thousand metric tons.    

      PSA revealed that the main culprit of weakened production include lesser trees induced due to the anticipation of rainy weather in Zamboanga Peninsula (Zamboanga Norte and Zamboanga City) and Northern Mindanao (Misamis Occidental).

Profood products are now in 54 countries with Canada and the United States as its major markets.