Banana industry seeking gov’t intervention in forex

The Philippine Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) has sought government intervention to help ther southern Mindanao’s banana industry recover from the destruction brought about by Typhoon Pablo in Baganga, Compostela Valley last December 4, 2012.
“The government can intervene in the foreign exchange rate (referring to the peso-dollar rate),” PBGEA president Stephen Antig said during the Hermes Club press conference at the Waterfront Insular Hotel Friday.
Antig said the continued increase in the value of the Philippine peso does not benefit the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) and the exporters at all. As of Friday, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas pegged the peso-dollar rate at P41.05 for every dollar.
He said predictions that the rate can possibly reach the P37 is to $1 rate by next year can lead to higher unmployment rate.
Antig said the increasing value of the Philippine peso against the United States dollar can aggravate the dire situation of the banana industry particularly in the three Davao Provinces namely Compostela Valley, Davao Oriental and Davao del Norte.
He said up to 14,732 hectares of land planted to banana have been affected by the typhoon, whcih is around 20 percent of the total hectarage of the industry.
“The industry needs around P7.5 billion to rehabilitate the destroyed banana plantations in the affected areas in the Davao provinces in the next eight to ten months,” he said. [LAC]