How PREDA tries to help small farmers with the mango export project.

How and why PREDA exports dried mangos.

Seven years ago PREDA was trying to promote Fair Trade in the mango industry and discovered that the industry was controlled by a group of rich families who were working together to fix the prices low. They were the exporters of fresh mangos and also exporting dried mangos.

BUYING CARTEL

It was our plan to help as many farmers as possible like Pedro, a small farmer in Masinloc, Zambales, by changing the unjust system that controlled the lives of thousands of small farmers around the Philippines through the cartels that fixed the low price. We tried public education and lobbying against the cartels and we never succeeded. They were rich powerful and connected to the politicians.

INCREASING DEMAND

We learned that if we sold dried mangos and mango juice in large quantities we could buy up a large part of the harvest at higher prices. That might force up the price of mangos because we knew that it would take a long time for new trees to mature and produce more mangos. Supply would take a long time to catch up with the demand. Our plan was to increase demand, create a shortage of fresh mangos and see if the price would rise. After several years our market in the World shops increased and the volume of our buying increased and we were surprised to see that the price of mangos began to increase.

A FAIR PRICE AT ALL TIMES

We offered fir prices adjusted to the fluctuating prevailing price. Mangos are never the same price for long. Much higher in the early part of the year in Luzon where there is little harvest but the price drops when the harvest time arrives and there is a big surplus. Because we were making mango puree we could buy ever shape and size of mango, not just the clean large ones like the exporters for fresh fruits.. The farmers were delighted to sell us everything no matter the outward appearance.

WORKING WITH THE MAINSTREAM BUSINESS

Preda entered a partnership with a professional dried fruit processor and with the processor developed a high quality chemical free dried mango and pineapple and sales began to rise quickly. The processor has the highest ethical standards and hygiene and processes to meet the EU standards and meet them every time. The World Shops and the customers found them safe, healthy and delicious. They understood how the growing sales were helping to change the situation of farmers in the Philippines. Not just to benefit a few cooperatives but to drive up prices especially during the peak harvest time when prices are usually dropping. Prices fluctuate with the supply and the demand like any fruit that has a short life before it starts to deteriorate and rot, it has to be sold. That is where the small farmers is vulnerable, they have to sell as soon as the fruit is ready for picking.In the tropical heat it cannot last for long. There is generic manipulation of mangos to give them longer life. 

GOING ORGANIC

Since early in 2002 Preda has been working closely with organic cooperatives who want to be certified and sell their mangos and other fruit as certified organic. preda is surveying their farms with the help of Philippine based certification experts and have discovered that 3000 trees are ready to be put into the organic conversion process. We are funding seminars, trainings and meeting of different groups of farmers to help them to converted to organic and be ready for certification. It only a one year away.

 RICH PLANTATIONS TO CAPTURE MANGO MARKET

THIS BUYING POWER OF THE PREDA PROJECT WILL BE ALL THE MORE IMPORTANT IN THE COMING YEARS. IN NEGROS ISLAND THE GREAT SUGAR PLANTATIONS ARE BEING CONVERTED IN TO MANGO PLANTATIONS BY THE WEALTHY LANDLORDS SO THAT THEY CAN AVOID GIVING UP THE LAND TO THE AGRARIAN REFORM PROGRAMME THAT WILL SHARE THE LAND TO THE SMALL FARMERS. 

THESE RICH FAMILIES ARE RESISTING THE GOVERNMENT EFFORTS TO INSTALL THE POOR FARMERS. LAST NOVEMBER 22, 2002 ARMED GUARDS STOPPED THE SMALL FARMERS MOVING ON THE LAND GRANTED TO THEM. IT WILL BE A LONG STRUGGLE TO BRING SOCIAL JUSTICE TO THESE LANDS. 

THE RICH PLANTATION WITH MULTINATIONAL PARTNERS HOPE TO FLOOD THE MARKET WITH LOW COST MANGOS FRUITS FROM THEIR HUGE PLANTATIONS AND SO CAPTURE THE WHOLE EXPORT AND LOCAL MARKET FOR R THE LONG TERM. THE SMALL FARMERS WILL COLLAPSE. BUT ONLY THESE PLANTATIONS WILL BE SELLING AND EXPORTING. THE PREDA PROJECT WILL BE AL THE MORE IMPORTANT AND WILL CONTINUE TO BUY FROM THE SMALL FARMERS AT HIGHER PRICES TO BLOCK THE TACTIC OF THE BIG PLANTATIONS TO CAPTURE THE WHOLE MARKET.

 WARNING TO IMPORTERS

The only warning to importers is not to import mangos as loose cargo without refrigerated, especially after March when it is getting warmer in the Northern hemisphere. The loose cargo shipping can be delayed, left in hot warehouse or in the sun or stored in a closed container in the sun and then the heating has a negative effect on the mangos. We cannot take responsibility for what happens to the cargo on the way due to bad shipping and handling. That is the responsibility of the importing partner. That said we have had heard of only two or three bad experiences from our partners and it was always traced to the bad shipping methods and storage.

Pedro, bagging mangos, no pesticide. Better price

 The more mangos PREDA bought from the farmers at higher prices, the demand for mangos grew greater and prices increased. Pedro, had several trees and with his neighbors he was doing very well and earning higher prices for the mangos. They were even learned how to protect the fruit on the trees without using pesticide. They covered every single baby fruit with a paper bag made from recycled newspaper, thus protecting the fruit from insects and never having to use pesticides. We pre financed hundreds of farmers like Pedro Gonzales and his neighbors. 

THE POWER PLANT AND THE MANGO GROWERS

 Life in a Philippine rural community

But prosperity that came from getting a steady price in a rising market for mangos was to come to an end for Pedro and his neighbors in Masinloc. If you lose even the trees what hope is there? That was the danger that faced Pedro and his neighbors. The government wanted their land for a power plant. The construction company, backed by the government, ordered the farmers to vacate the land that was marked off for the construction of coal-fired power station. The offered a small compensation that was unjust and not the true value of the property. They were to lose the magnificent mango trees some 100 years old, as big as an Oak tree.

This is their story. Pedro is a member of a group of small farmers in Bani, near the sea coast town of Masinloc, in the province of Zambales close to us at PREDA here in the Philippines.  

 I came to know Pedro and his family of three children a few years ago when he came to with a group of farmers to ask our help in their fight for their land that was being taken over by the government for the construction of electric power station that would benefit a multi-national consortium.

Of their small farms, which were handed down from one generation to the next. They lived in simplicity, in a beautiful and naturally rich area. They planted rice and vegetables, used water buffalo to cultivate their fields, chickens and pigs to provide eggs and meat and above all they had home grown fruit, such as pineapples, Guyabano and the delicious mango for which this province is famous. Their trees were a valuable source of income and the big sales of PREDA dried mangos brought prosperity to many families.

The day they came to us at the PREDA center they asked; "Please help us with our problem, the National Power Corporation is going to build a coal fired power station on our land. We are to be driven off and our whole community is to be relocated to the hillsides ". they pleaded. ".

It was shocking news. How could this community be uprooted and scattered for the sake of foreign companies who wanted the land for their own electrical power station. In this age of 'globalization, where the power of foreign corporations can influence the decision of small indebted countries like the Philippines, this kind of big brother bullying is not uncommon. The small folks have little or no power, unless they organize and fight for their rights. Even they can seldom win. Our duty was to help them.

 The farmers told me and the PREDA staff that they would be paid compensation. But it was too little, would not buy another piece of land the same size and would not compensate for the work of generations that had gone into their present small farms. They were victims of big power politics and international capital.

"We don't want the money", they said; "It cannot buy back the clear air, the unpolluted sea, the fields where we grew up and sweated and toiled for our children."

Then Juanito Daza, a neighbor of Pedro told us that they wanted the fields and trees that they had tended and cared for since their childhood, where they had played, walked across the fields to school, where they had fished and swam. Now it was all to be wiped out with the stroke of a pen by the unfeeling and uncaring government officials.

They had come to PREDA to ask advice on how they could organize an effective campaign to protest the project and even to stop it. And if they could not stop it how to protect the remaining farms and fishing grounds from the pollution and the construction. Was there any way they could save the magnificent mangos trees that gave a cool lush shade and a important earnings to every family during the harvest. That was their hope.

One mature large mango tree would earn enough money to send the family to school for a year and buy them clothes. This was what brought prosperity to Pedro and the community of Bani and it was this industry upon which their future depended.

All their lives they worked at mixed farming and their small rice fields and mango trees were fertilized with the manure of their farm animals. It was more than enough to feed their family and provide all their needs. They had a small fishing boat Boat too. Their children went to the nearby school and life was successful, simple and pleasant. Until the arrival of the bulldozers and the cranes.

 The power station was financed by the Asian Development Bank. This bank is supposed to help in development of the countryside but instead it gives money to big corporations and governments. It is financed by tax payers money from Germany too. This bank is a sister bank to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. In Washington many have protested the bank policies for helping the rich and not the poor. This was exactly what was happening to Pedro Gonzales and his neighbors. This is the bad result of globalization.  

With the help of their Filipino Parish Priest, Father James the farmers organized themselves, elected their leaders and were determined to resist the project. They asked our help in planning their campaign strategy. After discussion we all decided that there must be demonstrations against the bank who approved and funded the project. We advised the farmers on peaceful, democratic, non-violent tactics to protest against the project.

Not only would they lost their ancestral land but the project would benefit only the foreign owned factories clustered around metro Manila, many of them the Japanese. It was a Japanese company who had the contract to supply the generators to the Power station. The Asian Development Bank was Japanese controlled And so for three years, we mounted appeals to the Banks to the Government authorities, and called on the churches and other organizations for support.

 Together with the farmers and the members of the community of Bani PREDA campaigned with them, we joined demonstrations and protests. We marched in rallies with banners and placards, we made and burnt effigies of the exploiters and even took legal action.

The whole community became involved. But the Philippine Government and the National Power Corporation were determined not to let a small community stop their project. They managed to pay off some families, divide the community, and got many families to surrender and move out. Despite all these campaign actions we only succeed in delaying the project, we could not and did not succeed to stop it. But much was achieved nevertheless.

Pedro's and his friends lives were devastated when the construction workers started cutting down the coconut trees and the ancient mango trees, some of them a hundred year old. The hills were leveled. The sea bed and coral were torn out by dredging the sea floor for the ships that would deliver the coal that was to come form Australia. Today the huge red and white smoke stack billows out smoke and ash. The pollution control that was promised was never properly installed and operated according to some groups monitoring the project as it operates today.

Pedro and his family had to give up their farm and move off to another area where they bought a smaller piece of land with mango trees and small rice fields and these gave them a chance to recover and start again. We helped them as best we could. They planted more mango trees and today several years later, they are struggling back to life and prosperity. The mangos, which earn even higher prices now are the best income and have saved the farming lives of Pedro and many of his neighbors. The harvest is still much smaller form the younger tress but they make a living from it.

MARKETING SUCCESS

 END