Tagum City puts durian in limelight during festival
TAGUM CITY—The pungent but delicious durian will once more take center stage here on Friday.
The fruit, believed to be an aphrodisiac, will be the main ingredient for a “Culinary Olympics” that seeks to yield culinary creations that revolve around durian.
The cooking challenge will be part of this city’s Durian Festival, which will be held as a tribute to what people here describe as the “king of fruits.”
Expect a variety of ways of serving durian—from durian coffee to durian cakes—to emerge during the cooking contest, according to Mayor Reynaldo Uy.
Uy said the annual event, which the city started holding seven years ago, is the city’s tribute to the durian.
The city is among duriangrowing areas in Southern Mindanao and wants to move ahead of cultivating the fruit because of the benefits it brings to farmers in terms of improved income.
According to the mayor, durian could range in prices from as low as P25 per kilogram during peak season, or when the supply of durian is adequate to meet demand, to as high as P100 per kilogram during socalled off-season, when durian supply is barely enough to meet demand.
The mayor said, 15 years ago, the city government started a durian-planting program that offers durian seedlings to farmers on credit.
In the city today, at least 203 hectares of farms are planted with durian. The program, Mayor Uy said, has, so far, benefited 210 farmers.