Biggest mango-eating contest in Guimaras

MANILA, Philippines - Mango lovers. Here’s your chance to eat all you can Guimaras mangoes, the sweetest mango listed in the Guinness Book of World Record. You can eat all you can mangoes and can win prizes.

Summer time is also the holding of festival of mangoes in Guimaras. Dubbed Manggahan Festival, the yearly event is one way to boost the mango industry. By this time, mangoes and other by-products such as dried mangoes, mango ketchup and more are all on sale at a cheaper price at the main center. Also exhibited in the plaza are hand-made and indigenous products.

Among highlights of the annual festival to be held in two venues in Guimaras are mango-eating contests.

The first venue is at the Robinsons Place Fountain Area, where the two-day Mean Eat to Win Eat mango-eating contest will be held.

Then a bigger mango-eating contest will happen at the Provincial Capitol Ground. The contest is for seven days.

The Manggahan Festival aims to boost the mango industry. The industry is a major crop and source of steady income among people in the province. The province has been exporting mangoes and its by-products like dried mango fruits to different parts of the world.

For the mango-eating contest, about  nine tons of mangoes were dished out for the festival.

Visitors are charge with a fee of P70 or $1.65 equivalent for ripe mangoes and P40 or less than a dollar for green mangoes with shrimp paste. Guests can eat as many mangoes they could in 30 minutes. The management of the festival imposed a time limit to accommodate more visitors to join the feast.

Besides the mango-eating contest, there are other activities during the festival organized by the Guimaras Provincial Tourism Office care of Joneline Tanaleon and the private sector represented by Robinsons Place.

Among activities are streetdancing procession, cultural presentation, technology fair and painting.