Neighboring countries are now giving the Philippines a run for its money in the export banana industry with the world’s leading commercial banana producer, Dole, opting to expand production in Malaysia rather than in the Davao Region.
A report recently posted by state-owned news agency Bernama quoted Jessie Soon, managing director of the Bernam Jaya Farm of Dole Sebiro Sdn Berhad, saying that Malaysia will be exporting a million boxes of Cavendish bananas this year and that expansion are underway to further expand production for both the local and international export market like Korea.
Korea is among the fast-emerging market of the Philippine export banana industry where sixteen million boxes were shipped by Davao growers last year.
“There is still so much room for growth in the global banana market but it seems that an exodus has begun and investors confidence are going elsewhere because of better incentives being offered by government and absence of destabilizing factors such as misguided and adversarial often misinformed non-government organizations,” said PBGEA president Stephen A. Antig.
Antig cited as an example the no-frills policies of the state government of Hulu Selangor in Malaysia which pointedly turned-down offers by multinationals for commissions and shares in their banana-growing ventures.
“Not only did the state government provided infrastructure support to the investors. It also took measures to consult the local population and solicit people’s support to investors’s initiatives in upgrading productivity of local labor and in community development programs,” said Antig.
Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei have all adopted blueprints to developing a highly-competitive export banana industry to meet global demands for the fruit with Malaysia now heavily investing in infrastructure development to make the Sabah coast the leading agro-industrial and commercial hub in the Sulu-Sulawesi area and take advantage of China’s growing dominance in the East Asia economy.
“I think we will be losing plenty of opportunities for growth due to the lackadaisical attitude of government, myopic policies and too liberal an environment where even foreign-funded lobbyists are freely allowed to assail legitimate Filipino businesses,” said Antig.
Antig is recommending that the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Board of Investments, the Mindanao Development Authority, the science community and the stakeholders of the Philippine export banana industry hold a summit and address the most critical things to be done to sustain Mindanao ascendancy as Asia’s top producer of world-class export bananas. [Alberto Dalilan]
