By Carlo P. Mallo
Based on the assessment of the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association, the entire banana industry is set to lose $100 million or roughly P4.3 billion.
In an interview with Edge Davao, PBGEA executive director Stephen Antig said that the industry ships about 50 million boxes to China annually with an estimated value of $140 million or about P6 billion.
“At the rate things are going, shipment to China has been reduced by as much as 70 percent, and things haven’t really changed,” Antig said, adding that his estimates were very conservative. “If we base it on our figures from last year, we will only have about $40 million dollars this year.”
The banana industry has been hurting from the stringent measures that China suddenly imposed on Philippine Bananas during the height of the standoff over the Scarborough Shoal.
“We have followed the phytosanitary requirements that they have asked of us but the situation has not changed,” Antig said.
While the member companies of PBGEA have diversified markets, they are still feeling the pain of being unable to ship to China.
“We ship about 25 percent of our member’s produce to China. It’s hurting us,” Antig said adding that small growers, who enjoyed the export boom to China, are the ones who are affected most. “They ship about 90 percent of their produce to China. Now that it’s very strict, what happens to them?”
Meanwhile, Latin American companies, like Alisa Sunrise, which has operations in Ecuador and Costa Rica, have disclosed that they have reached a new market for their Cavendish bananas – China.
While it is not financially sound for a country as far as Ecuador to export to China, the sheer volume of demand that the Chinese market has is more than enough for companies like Alisa Sunrise to gain profit. The same market used to be dominated by Philippine exporters.
Alisa Sunrise’s Giselle Gomez admitted in a Fresh Plaza article that the problem between the Philippines and China has given them the window to enter the lucrative Chinese market.
Filipino exporters meanwhile lament what they call a lackadaisical response of the government to the problems that they are experiencing right now.
“It seems that the government is not giving importance to the problem. Maybe the government will act when the entire industry is dead,” a local exporter, who requested anonymity, said.
The same sentiment is shared by several exporters who suffered the most after China imposed stringent quarantine measures that would make it impossible for Philippine Cavendish bananas to enter their country.
Communication between the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and the Philippine’s Department of Agriculture, there has been no concrete development since the June 1 imposition of new quarantine measures.
Several billions of pesos have already been lost by small exporters and multinational firms and this will continue unless the issue with China whether phytosanitary or political remains unsolved.
