EXPORTS of Philippine bananas for the last quarter of this year are expected to rise following China’s lifting of restrictions on Philippine exports early this month.
Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) executive director, Stephen Antig, told SunStar Davao in a phone interview Tuesday, October 18, that it is a development much welcomed by the banana industry.
The suspension was lifted for the following companies: Sumifru, Banana Brothers, Inc., Evita Banana Trading Company, Inc., Nader and Ibrahim S/O Hassan Phils., Inc., Tagum Agricultural Development Trade Co., Inc., TVEM Links International Co., Stanfilco Division of Dole Philippines, Inc., Phil pack, Continental Farm Corp., and Lapanday Diversified Products Corp.
Antig noted that presently, prices of bananas in the world market are “not that attractive.”
Last week, a box of bananas is sold at only P80 to P120.
Antig said attractive prices are usually at P280 to P300 per box.
“But at least, China resumes to import from some then banned banana exporters,” he said.
Antig added the banana players are hoping for the top export product’s price to go up towards the end of the year.
The lift is believed to be the result after an inspection team deployed by Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine in China visited the Philippines last month and inspected various banana plantations in Mindanao, particularly in the cities of Panabo, Tagum and Gensan.
The Chinese quarantine representatives, Antig said, have found out that most of the banana growers in the city were following quality standards and the corrective measure on some phytosanitary issues were being implemented by the local-based exporters.
Antig, however said, they further urged some of the small banana players to improve the quality of their operations especially on packing quality.
China’s decision was announced by Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol after Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua paid a courtesy call to the Department of Agriculture early this month. The Chinese community’s decision came ahead of President Rodrigo Duterte's visit to Beijing middle of this month.
Despite the ban lifting, Antig also noted that the move of some banana producing countries like Vietnam, Ecuador, and some Latin American nations, penetrating the Chinese market is also one of the biggest challenges of the industry. Vietnam, for instance, is overtaking the Philippine banana industry in terms of land area. As of this year, Vietnam’s land area devoted to bananas is at 126,000 hectares, much larger than the country’s 85,000 hectares.
"Unless we shape up, there will come a time that we will no longer become the biggest exporter of bananas in Southeast Asia," Antig said. Last year, the Philippines exported 448,000 metric tons of bananas to China valued at $157.5 million.
In a report, China destroyed 35 tons of bananas from the Philippines valued at $33,000 last March, and eventually suspended 27 exporters.
Apart from lifting the ban, China is also eyeing at increasing its imports from the Philippines particularly on high value commercial crops such as mangoes, coconut and dragon fruit, high-end fishery products including Lapu-Lapu, crabs, shrimps, prawns, and tuna.
In 2012, when the suspension started, China after allegedly observing that there were mealy bugs in the fruit shipments from the Philippines immediately imposed strict phytosanitary measures. With this, the Bureau of Plant Industry issued a memorandum in 2012 underscoring that exportation of fruits and vegetables shall only be allowed if the exporting firm is accredited and exporters are prohibited to source fruits and vegetables from non-accredited growers and traders.
A revised protocol for the export of fresh bananas and fresh pineapple fruits was also issued to address phytosanitary issues. Antig added that, originally China’s plan was to ban all the Philippine bananas but the DA and private sector negotiated with China that the suspension be implemented on a case to case basis per exporting company.
He also pointed out that apart from the phytosanitary issues, the banana players suspected that territorial dispute over West Philippine Sea/South China Sea was also a factor to the suspension imposed by China.
PBGEA-member companies, which were affected by the suspension order, reported that six to seven million boxes per year or 20 to 25 percent of their total production was lost due to suspension order. He shared that before the suspension order sometime in 2010 to 2012, exports to China grew by 20 to 30 percent per annum.