Cotabato Town Produces The Tastiest, Sweetest Pomelo

ALL OVER THE COUNTRY

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

 M’LANG, Cotabato – The pomelo in this agricultural land locked town is the tastiest among all the big citrus fruits in the country, an executive of the huge Sheba Pomelo Farm said.
Eleonor “Lotlot” Alba- Antonio said that in her countless of years as supervisor of planters of huge hectares of pomelo in the provinces of Cotabato, South Cotabato, Sarangani, and Davao, the sweet pinkish flesh fruit planted here is the tastiest.

“Aside from the combination of proper care, right fertilizers and pesticides the factor of its being the sweetest is the soil of this town,” Antonio told this writer in her 24 hectares of  the scientifically known citrus grandis' plantation in Barangay Buayan here.

 POMELOS. Businesswoman Eleonor “Lotlot” Alba- Antonio and a worker pose for posterity with a mountain of the big citrus fruits behind them at her 24 hectares' farm in Brgy. Buayan, M'lang, Cotabato Province.

She disclosed that Sheba Pomelo Farm has roughly three hundred of hectares of pomelo plantations all over Central Mindanao and Davao Provinces that sustain the unquenchable appetites for the big citrus fruits of the millions of consumers in the Visaya and Luzon Regions.

She cited that pomelo varies in classes.

“This one is Class A while this same size is Class B. When you weight them by your hand however the Class B is lighter,” she explained in Ilonggo the distinctions of the five pomelo fruits displayed at the table while countless of sacks of pomelos for delivery in Manila piled nearby.

Antonio cited that the bigger size is Class C while those being sold at those makeshift stores in Barangay New Rizal here is “Wakli” or rejected by planters like her because they are smaller in sizes.

“Those you bought with your wife in New Rizal and those you bought in Kidapawan City for P25 to P30 a kilo are “Wakli” I was just silent when you posted them at Facebook ”.

This writer usually buy a sack or 20 kilos of pomelo as consumption and “pasalubong” to kin and friends in Pangasinan whenever he went back to the northern Luzon province.

“The average market price of a Class A is P70 a kilo because it is not yet harvest season”.

A kilo of pomelo runs to more than P200 a kilo in big grocery stores in Luzon.

“That P70 a kilo pomelo here is the same pomelo you bought in a cartoon with “Davao Pomelo” printed on the box,” for more than a hundred pesos. Those big farms in Davao buy from us here and in our farms in other provinces. People thought that sweet fruit comes from Davao but it’s really from M’lang mostly because of the quality of the pomelo here," she stressed.

SACK LOADS. Author (extreme left) his cousin Toto Celeste, his California based nurse's sister Sadie Ortigoza, and big time pomelo trader Lotlot Alba-Antonio at her farm in Brgy. Buayan, M'lang in Cotabato Province. Background are piles of sack loads of the sweet pinkish flesh fruits for delivery to Manila by lorries.

This town has 37 villages and populated by almost 100,000 who are mostly Ilonggos.

Antonio said that it takes half a million of pesos as cost of production to harvest a hectare of the mouth watery product.

“You have to wait for five years and the harvest is twice a year. A farmer earned a gross of one million pesos in one hectare per harvest or a net profit of five hundred thousand  pesos (per harvest or one million pesos in two harvests a year - Editor)”.

Many farmers here, including those former rubber and palm oil planters, shifted to pomelo venture because of the hefty returned of investment.

“Each of them leased to us for seven years a minimum of three hectares of their lands. We would pay P100,000 for  one hectare in seven years contract, ” Antonio, a Bachelor of Science in Commerce graduate, explained how they accumulate lands for the Farm.

She cited that Sheba Pomelo Farm is gargantuan that she and husband Johnny concentrate on the planting of the fruits in their various farms while another group of people are in charge of the freights by land, air and sea and those of the marketing.

“Those who do the marketing in Visayas and Luzon primordially are different people of the company as it is beyond our duty already”.

She said that not all soils in this rustic town is conducive to the plantation of the big citrus fruits.

“You cannot plant pomelo in your village Dugong because the soil there is different while it jibes with the soils in Barangays Tawan-Tawan, Lika, Buayan, and others”.

Antonio cited that when one brand a pomelo from this town it covers those fruits produced in neighboring towns Matalam and Tulunan.

“Major producers of the fruits are M’lang, Malongon (Sarangani Province), and Tagum (City, Davao del Norte),” she stressed.