The 7 Top Food Exports of the Philippines

Mango

• It is the most beloved fruit of the Philippines.
• We have three variants—the Carabao or Manila mango, which is kidney-shaped and considered the sweetest in the world; the Pico, which is elongated and flatter than the carabao; and the Kachamita or indian mangoes, which many prefer to eat unripe.

Banana

• It is a curvy yellow fruit that grows in clusters atop large flowering plants from the Musa species.
• There are 57 banana cultivars, five of which you can find in the Philippines—Saba, Lacatan, Latundan, Bungulan and Cavendish

Pineapple

• The pineapple fruit is an aggregate of fruitlets grown from a small shrub. It is fleshy and juicy, with the flavour varying from sweet to slightly acidic.
• The Philippines has several varieties of pineapples, including the Formosa, which is the sweetest kind; the Hawaiian, which is the heaviest and most popular, and the Native Philippine Red, which is cone-shaped and grown for its fiber.

Tuna

• The Philippines is one of the largest exporters of tuna in Asia, since its coastal waters act as spawning grounds for this saltwater fish.
• The country ships over 100,000 tonnes of yellowfin, bigeye and skipjack tuna to markets across the globe.

Coffee

• The coffee tree is a small evergreen shrub that produces coffee beans, which are actually the pits from coffee cherries.
• The Philippines is among the few countries that produce the four main viable coffee
  varieties—Arabica, which is the most common cultivar; Liberica or Barako, which has an irregular shape and is hard to come by; Excelsa, which has a fruity body that works well in coffee blends; and Robusta, which is strong in caffeine and primarily used for instant coffee.

Coconut

• Coconut can refer to either the whole coconut palm tree, the seed, or the fruit, which is not actually a nut but a drupe.
• The Philippines produces a variety of coconuts, including the Baybay, which has a thin husk; the San Ramon, which bears extra large nuts when young; and the Macapuno, which is a mutant form of the Laguna variety, with the nuts having soft and jelly-like meat.