MANILA is keen on negotiating for lower tariffs for bananas and the revival of its mango exports to Tokyo, according to the Department of Agriculture (DA).
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. recently met with Japanese officials and businessmen at the Asean-Japan Summit.
Tiu Laurel said the DA has already scheduled a meeting between Filipino and Japanese officials at the Philippines-Japan Joint Committee on Agriculture slated for the second quarter of this year.
“This very first meeting of the joint agriculture committee of the two Asian neighbors here in the Philippines will provide an avenue to follow through the agri-fisheries trade and market access discussions started in Japan,” Tiu Laurel was quoted in a statement as saying.
According to the DA, Philippine bananas are staples for Japanese consumers, accounting for 22 percent of their food basket.
The Philippines’s proximity to Japan allows the country to deliver low-cost bananas and other tropical fruits compliant with Japanese food standards.
Given this, Tiu Laurel said Manila looks at the review of Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement as a good initial opportunity “to discuss the Philippines’ appeal for lower tariff on bananas.”
Under Jpepa, an economic partnership agreement between the two countries, tariff on Philippine banana is pegged at 8 percent from April 1 to September 30, and then increased to 18 percent for imports between October 1 and March 31.
The DA is also seeking to revive the Japanese market for Philippine mangoes, whose export had declined sharply since Japan adopted in 2011 stricter sanitary and photo-sanitary standards, especially the maximum residue limit.
During the Asean-Japan Summit in December, Tiu Laurel led ceremonies to mark the re-entry of Philippine mangoes to Japan, with the presentation of the tropical fruit to his Japanese counterpart.
Agriculture Attache Aleli Maghirang, who is assigned at the Philippine Embassy in Tokyo, said she is hopeful that fresh Davao mangoes’ re-entry in the Japanese market will spur “greater confidence to our exporters to continue supplying to Japan.”
Maghirang said the country’s agriculture exports to Japan amounted to $679 million in the third quarter of 2023.
In the past three years, Manila’s exports to Tokyo amounted to $2.89 billion. The country’s highest export earnings from shipments to Japan was $1.08 billion in 2020 followed by $894.4 million in 2021 and $916 million in 2022.
DA said Japan is the second largest market for Philippine agri-food exports, enjoying a trade surplus of $824 million in 2022. At the end of the third quarter last year, Philippine agricultural trade with Japan showed a $596.4 million surplus in favor of the Philippines.