The Department of Agriculture (DA) has expressed concerns over the 10-percent decline in the country’s banana exports, saying international trade may be disrupted and Filipinos who depend on the crop could suffer losses if the slide in shipments continues.
Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar said he was surprised by the decline in the Philippines’s exports to countries where consumers have disposable income and could purchase banana.
Dar said this may be due to the possibility that the Philippines is losing its share in traditional banana markets abroad.
During the general assembly of the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) last Friday, Dar asked the group about the drop in exports.
“Given the current situation, our markets still have the disposable income to buy bananas, most especially [during the] pandemic. There is simply no reason for them not to buy. And yet, the Philippines is losing in the export war. What happened?” Dar said in a statement.
“If left unchecked, this will reduce substantially the Philippines’s exports, disrupt trade in the international markets, and cause suffering on banana growers, farmers, workers and their families, which may lead to social unrest,” he added.
The BusinessMirror reported last Friday that the country’s banana exports from January to July fell by 10 percent to $1 billion from $1.1 billion last year, based on Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data (See, “PHL banana exports down 10 percent in 7 months,” in the BusinessMirror, September 18, 2020).
Total banana shipments during the seven-month period fell 4 percent to 2.439 million metric tons (MMT) from 2.541 MMT recorded last year, PSA data showed.
Dar also said the DA has allotted P100 million for the sustainable research and development (R&D) program to control Fusarium wilt and rehabilitate affected areas.
The R&D program will involve the establishment of a system to ensure the production via tissue culture of quality banana resistant varieties and distribute these to farmers to rehabilitate and replant disease-damaged farms, according to the DA.
“I challenge the [PBGEA] leadership to also put [up] a counterpart funding for the very research issues that you would like to pursue. I am not going to mention how much you will commit, but we will gladly welcome your share,” he said.
However, PBGEA, which accounts for about 50 percent of the country’s banana plantations, is lukewarm to the idea of matching the fund that the DA will allocate for the R&D program.
PBGEA Executive Director Stephen A. Antig told the BusinessMirror that it would be unfair to his group if PBGEA would be the only entity asked to contribute to the R&D program, which is expected to benefit the entire local banana industry.
“If there are people that need the banana research institute, it would be the small and medium growers. I did not mince words when I told [DA] for so long a time these growers have been piggy-backing on PBGEA,” Antig said.
“They are benefitting from the research and technology of PBGEA. Some of them are earning more than the members of PBGEA but they are not contributing even a little to that [banana research institute],” he added.
Antig said PBGEA member-companies have their own laboratories that are attempting to a discover a Fusarium-wilt banana variety as well as solutions against other banana diseases.
Contributing to the government’s R&D program for the banana sector, he said, would mean additional expenses for PBGEA members.
Antig said one of the possible proposals his group is willing to consider is the imposition of an export levy for every box of bananas that will be shipped out. Part of the levy, he said, should fund the national R&D program.
“For example, all exporters shall give one peso or fifty centavos per box exported. Imagine, at a worst-case scenario wherein the industry will export 100 million boxes, then at P1 per box, that is already P100 million,” he said.
Antig said the DA could also consider shouldering the entire budgetary requirement for the Banana Research and Development Institute since it received additional funds under the Bayanihan 2 law.
He said the DA should consider pouring more money on industries where the country has competitive and comparative advantages, like banana, pineapple, and avocado, instead of commodities that do not have long-term economic benefit.