A multi-sector project in the municipality of Victoria, Oriental Mindoro hopes to revitalize the declining calamansi industry in the town once tagged as the “Fruit Basket of Oriental Mindoro,” after the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the municipal government of Victoria, the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) and the Mindoro State College of Agriculture and Technology (MinSCAT).

Region 4-B is the main source of calamansi in the Philippines, with the region producing about 58 percent of the country’s supply, according to Bureau of Agriculture Statistics (BAS) data. Of the region’s output, nearly 99 percent is produced by Oriental Mindoro alone, with Victoria accounting for 58 percent of the province’s annual harvest.