The fantastic Aeta organic Fair Trade mango

WHAT depressed Susana, the chieftain of the Aeta indigenous people from Alibang community in Subic, Zambales was the bare-faced, shameless cheating and exploitation she and her whole village endured at the hands of the commercial mango traders in the nearby town. They only offered to pay four to five pesos a kilo for the Aeta pico mangoes and then the traders resold them in the market for 30 to 40 pesos. When the Aeta tried to set up their own retailing and trading stall in the public market, they were blocked or denied a permit for one reason or another or given a place so remote the customers could not find them.

The cheating used to happen every June, which is the harvest time for pico mango. The carabao mango harvest from February to May has passed and the demand for sweet pico mango was rising. It should be a time for prosperity and good earnings for the Aeta indigenous people but Susan and the village mango farmers were depressed and angry. They could not earn anything to buy rice by carrying sacks of mangoes from the mountains to the town and get only four pesos a kilo.