BANANA production’s sudden decline in Mindanao has made the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBgea) decide to lobby a bill to address the challenges of the country’s banana industry.
“One of the things that we are now working on is to craft a bill on the revitalization of the Philippine banana industry. And once that bill is crafted, we will ask one of the congressmen to sponsor that bill,” Stephen Antig, PBgea executive director, revealed during the Business Matters Forum on Friday, September 27, 2024.
Antig explained that they wanted to give the banana industry in Mindanao a chance to have its own state-of-the-art facilities.
“Because one of the stipulations of the bill is to really establish a world-class research facility that will not only serve the Cavendish industry but the whole agricultural sector. As we all know the upcoming agri-champions are avocado and durian,” he added.
Meanwhile, apart from climate change, banana pests, and diseases, Antig confirmed that the decline of supply is primarily due to a limitation of hectares for plantation, forcing them to reach out to the Department of Agrarian (DA) for land reform.
“I’m trying to lobby or get the Department of Agrarian Reform to amend the Agrarian Reform Law because we believe that the limitation of five hectares is not feasible for this kind of crop. Unfortunately, we have not gotten any feedback as to whether the amendments are coming or not, but we will definitely continue to lobby twice,” Antig said, adding that of the original 89,000 hectares designated for banana agriculture, only 15,000 hectares have been utilized.
He added that Mindanao is experiencing a continuous decline in banana production also due to pathogens and other diseases affecting crops. According to Antig, such issues if not mitigated and resolved immediately could create a negative impact on the job market as 700,000 workers across Mindanao currently depend on the banana industry.
However, despite the situation, the official confirmed that the production in 2024 has increased over the past seven months.
“We saw improvement in the production as well as the exportation of our bananas in the traditional markets like Japan, South Korea, and the Middle East. China is the biggest market but unfortunately, the suppliers that are now dominating China are Vietnam, Cambodia, and Ecuador, and the reason is that we don’t have enough volume," Antig concluded. DEF