The Philippines government has a dastardly, delicious dilemma: The country can’t figure out what to do with 2m kilograms of extra mangoes.
Thanks to weather patterns associated with El Niño, mango farmers grew more mangoes than expected — and the department of agriculture is getting creative to move those mangoes.
Yes, it’s a real problem
It may seem unimaginable to salivating smoothie-sippers, but rock-bottom mango prices would be a really bad deal for Philippine mango farmers.
Already, the mountain of mangoes has caused prices for a mango to fall from $1.12 to about 38¢.
But things will get worse in a few weeks as the mangoes rot, so the government hatched a sweet plan…
To get rid of the ’goes, anything goes
As part of a program called “Metro Mango” the government will install bulk fruit stands all over the capital of Manila.
Then, to really get the people mangoing, the government will sponsor cooking classes and host a mango festival.
Foreign demand has marginally mitigated mango mania (a Japanese company is looking to order 100,000 kg), but not quite enough: Some farmers have already begun giving their mangoes away for free.