CHECKERED Farm Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Multi-purpose Cooperative (CFARBEMPCO) assistant manager Meshel Basang said Dabawenyo banana farmers must consider joining cooperatives in order to increase more their agricultural yield.

“Kase yung ibang mga banana growers hindi pa bihasa sa pagmarket ng banana kami sa cooperative ang tumutulong para magmarket (Some banana farmers find it hard to market their products. The cooperative is here to help them),” Basang said in an interview during the International Banana Congress at SMX Convention Center, SM Lanang, Davao City.

Basang added the target market for the Dabawenyo banana farmers from Panabo extend to China, Korea, Japan, and even Middle East.

CFARBEMPCO is a cooperative of agrarian reform beneficiaries from the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp).

“Ang ginagawa namin is from Carp, binuo naming yung cooperative tapos mula sa lupa na nakuha nila mula sa program ay mas pinalago naming at majorly ang focus is on gaining higher market (What we did is from Carp, we formed the cooperative and developed the land focusing on gaining a higher market),” Basang said.

Basang added that every member who owns a hectare of banana plantation can produce at least 3,500 boxes of class A Cavendish banana ready for export.

Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) records show that in the fourth quarter of 2017 the volume of banana produce reached to 2.409 million metric tons (MMT). This was a 3.15 percent increase compared to 2.335 MMT in the same period in 2016.

For the period January to March 2018, production of banana went up by 2.1 percent to 2.14 million metric tons this year from 2.10 million metric tons in 2017.

“Mahirap kung hindi member ng cooperative kase mahihirapan rin maghanap ng market mula sa malalaking kompanyang bibili (It would be difficult if one is not a member because there would be difficulty in finding a market among big companies),” Basang said.