Banana growers seek tariffs reduction

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

BANANA still tops the list of exported fresh fruits from the country, according to reports presented during the second round of the nationwide series on "Doing Business in Free Trade Areas" (DBFTA-II) held July 14 at the Royal Mandaya Hotel in Davao.

However, while the Philippines remain as the dominant supplier of fresh bananas to Japan, South Korea, China and New Zealand, the banana industry is apprehensive it might gradually lose its market shares even in these free trade areas, "that if government won't be more aggressive in negotiating for reduced tariffs in countries where we export our bananas," said Stephen Antig, executive officer of the Pilipino Banana Growers & Exporters Association Inc. (PBGEA) -- the umbrella organization of 33 banana-exporting companies in 11 provinces in Mindanao.

Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.

"There is a need for a thorough review of our free trade agreements (FTAs) and assess our trading partners' fulfillment of their commitments to ensure that we are at an outstanding edge in the trading game; in our case, the elimination or reduction of tariffs," Antig added.

At present, cavendish, the variety that is most exported is still classified under the exclusion list of imports by most, if not all of the country's trading partners.

"That means our buyers have to pay import duties ranging from 40 to 10 percent of the value of the goods. This would pose as a stringent constraint and encourages our importers to get fresh bananas from our competitors like Ecuador, Peru and other producing countries at lower importation costs," Antig said.

On this development, the PBGEA executive director particularly cited a recent report from Ecuador, a Latin American nation, which indicated a huge increase in its banana importation to South Korea, an Asian country, during the first five months of this year -- from 4.2 million tons in 2010 to 11.5 million tons this year, or a three-fold increase in volume. The Philippines ranks second to Ecuador as the top banana exporting country in the world, but for how long if the industry does not get the needed support from the government.

In a related development, Senen Perlada, national chief of the Bureau of Export Trade Promotion (BETP) urged Davao investors to strengthen partnership with government to maximize the utilization of existing free trade agreements, namely: Asean Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) with nine Asean-member countries, Asean-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA), Philippine-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (PJEPA), Asean-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (AJCEPA), Asean-Korea Free Trade Agreement (AKTFA),Asean-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA), and the recently ratified India-Asean Free Trade Agreement.

"FTAs are like trading games. If we don't play, we simply lose by default," Perlada said.

He added that all agreements cover a total of 53 merchandise, most of which are agro-industrial resource-based.

To double up the country's performance on exports, Perlada said the government is relying on Mindanao regions to achieve this goal.

Considered as priority sectors in Mindanao are processed/fresh food, information and communication technology, and coconut. (PR)