LINGAYEN–Pangasinan mangoes have been given the seal of approval by the United States Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Plant Industry (USDA-BPI) for entry into the American market.

The USDA-BPI has certified the province’s mango produce as free from the presence of mango pulp and seed weevil.

The certification was issued following a series of surveys involving more than 120,000 mango trees from September 2006 toOctober this year under a USDA-BPI project called “Enhancing the Export Competitiveness of the Philippine Super Mango”.

Dr. Hernani Golez, a mango expert and head of the National Mango Research and Development Center, was part of the survey activity.

Vicente Adorna, USDA-BPI regional project coordinator for Region 1 and Atty. Cipriano Santiago, regional executive director, has sent a letter to Gov. Amado Espino Jr. announcing the good news.

“These findings will pave the way as this is a pre-requisite to qualify our mangoes produced in the province of Pangasinan for export to the United States of America,” said the letter to Espino.

Pangasinan accounts for 89% of the mango production in Region 1 and 41% nationwide.

The top 20 mango producing municipalities in the province are San Carlos City (100,540 bearing trees), Malasiqui (44,000), Mangatarem (27,280), Aguilar  (22, 880), Urdaneta City (21,604), Bolinao (17,600), Villasis (17,160) Urbiztondo (16,940) Bayambang (15,400), Umingan (13,772), Calasiao (13,640), Pozorrubio (12,839), Mabini (12,320), Infanta (7,920), Sison (7,392), Bugallon (7,348), San Manuel (6,952), Sta. Barbara (6,820), Basista (6,732) and Mangaldan (6,600), according to data from the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist as of June 2007.#

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