THOUSANDS of growers of export Cavendish hardly-hit by the recent ban on bananas and other fruits by Iran will shift to palm oil and other less capital-intensive crops
.This was bared by Ireneo “Rene” D. Dalayon, chair of the Federation of ARB Banana-based Cooperatives and president of the Mindanao Banana Exporters and Growers Association, who said if the small growers would not be able to find an alternative market to replace Iran as buyer, in the next two years they are expected to abandon their farms.
Dalayon, who was recently picked a national finalist in the Ernst & Young Entreprenuer of the Year 2010 search for his role in helping thousands of small banana growers get a better deal from buyers, told newsmen that a total of 5,000 hectares of banana farms are adversely affected by the Iran ban.
He said the ban on banana imports from the Philippines has affected mainly the small banana growers who have contracts with big companies that sell to the Middle Eastern country and may eventually become untenable for them.
“Banana growing is capital intensive. You have to spend P1,000 a day per hectare and small farmers will not be able to sustain their farm if they cannot sell in the next two months,” said Dalayon, although he could not give off hand the number of farmers hit by the ban.
What has made matters worse, Dalayon added, is that their main buyer, said to be Unifrutti, a multinational company, had stopped buying for about a month. “This will lead to the collapse of the small farmers banana industry,” he added.
Even the big companies have asked the national government to immediate steps to alleviate the situation as the ban will mean the loss of 50 million boxes at 13.5 kilograms a box, or about P6.5 billion annually based on the figures from the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association, the biggest industry-based organization in Mindanao.
Stephen S. Antig, executive director of PBGEA, said his group has already coordinated with concerned agencies like the Departments of Agriculture and Trade and Industry for the solution of the problem.
“We are waiting for action by the national government, otherwise it will be a big burden to us,” Antig told BusinessWorld.
In an earlier interview, he said the ban “can cause displacement of a lot of people if not settled soon”—referring to the about 64,000 workers hit by the ban.
Even the progressive Kilusang Mayo Uno in Southern Mindanao has joined the call for the government to immediately act on the problem.
In a press statement, Romualdo Basilio, chair of the organization’s Southern Mindanao chapter, said the government must put up a subsidy for banana farmers “to keep their families from starving.”
Basilio added that the government should takes steps for certain contracted banana workers to avail of permanent positions in the banana industry as many of them are laid off after six months of work.
However, in the growership setup, those who have become owners of farms through the agrarian reform program, do the tilling their lands.
The ban is seen as a protest by Iran against the United States of America’s sanctions against the Iran for refusing to stop its nuclear program.
Iran has banned 49 agricultural products from countries that are allies of the US, on the pretext that these products are non-essentials.
