Thursday, December 25, 2008 Banana producers urged to expand due to supply gap
BANANA producers in Mindanao and elsewhere in the country should expand plantation areas to take advantage of the supply gap in Japan reportedly triggered by the so-called "Banana Morning Diet" there, a lawmaker from a banana-producing province in the southern Philippines urged.
North Cotabato Representative Emmylou Tali¤o-Mendoza said the growing popularity of the diet over the past six months has sent bananas flying of supermarket racks in Japan faster than they could be replenished.
"The Banana Morning Diet has become fashionable in Japan on account of strong endorsements by celebrities there who have attributed their sudden weight loss to the regimen," she said in a statement last week.
Conceptualized by a pharmacist in Osaka, the regimen reportedly starts with a banana (or as many as desired) with a glass of room temperature water for breakfast and anything for lunch and dinner.
However, desserts are disallowed after meals, while a mid-afternoon snack is fine. One must have dinner by 8 p.m. and go to bed before midnight.
Mendoza said that more than half of annual Philippine banana exports are bought by Japan, which in 2007 imported 970,000 metric tons coming mostly from the country and partly from Taiwan.
Most of the country's bananas are produced in Mindanao, where the Davao Region accounts for 42.49 percent or a volume of 3.18 million metric tons in 2007 for all varieties, the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics' (BAS) Major Crops Statistics of the Philippines 2002 to 2007 said.
North Cotabato produced last year 579,274 MT of bananas out of Central Mindanao region's 935,565 MT total production volume, the same report added.
One of the key banana producers in North Cotabato is the Standard Philippines Fruit Corp. (Stanfilco), a subsidiary of Dole Philippines Inc.
In pushing for banana production expansion, she said that under the Japan Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (Jpepa), Philippine bananas would gain more access to the Japanese market.
She noted that Japan "agreed to eliminate import duties on small bananas over 10 years" under the agreement.
Mendoza added that bilateral trade agreement also provides tariff reduction for other kinds of bananas, offering an advantage to Philippine exporters.
She believed that the Philippines could still substantially grow banana exports by enlarging market share in Japan and other parts of the world.
"We are definitely counting on growing banana exports to provide increased employment and livelihood opportunities moving forward, not just in [North] Cotabato but in other Mindanao provinces as well," Mendoza said.
After Ecuador, the Philippines is now the world's second biggest banana exporter, with a global market share of 16 percent.
Last year, the country shipped out 1.905 million metric tons of bananas worth $440 million, or P18.1 billion based on the $1:P41.14 exchange rate at the end of 2007, Mendoza reported.
However, Mendoza said that the Philippines' 2007 banana export volume was only 40 percent of the 4.65 million metric tons shipped out by Ecuador that year.
Ecuador cornered 34 percent of the global banana export market in 2007, she noted. (BSS)
