El Niño effects on Tadeco minimal

By Cheneen R. Capon
Production in the monolithic Tagum Agricultural Development Company Inc. (Tadeco) in Davao del Norte decreased by almost 10 percent in the first quarter of the year.
This, despite preparations to mitigate the effect of the long dry spell on its more than 6,000 hectares of banana plantation.
Ryan Pete A. Zamora, superintendent for the quality management system department of Tadeco, said banana production of the company decreased from 7.896 million in the first quarter of 2015 to 7.853 million boxes during the same period this year.
“The drop in the number of boxes is very minute,” Zamora told Edge Davao yesterday. Tadeco is the producer of export-quality banana for DOLE and Del Monte.
Though Tadeco is not badly hit by the El Niño, its production dropped when the bunch weight decreased as the effect of the phenomenon.
“None of our banana trees was damaged but production went down when the bunch weight decreased,” said Reagan D. Navarro, manager for quality management system, statistics and chemical laboratory department of TADECO.
Navarro described the reduction in the bunch weight of TADECO as negligible compared to the drop in other banana companies hit by the long drought expected to end by June this year.
“Ours is weighing around 26 to 27kg per bunch, while other companies only weigh 20kg,” he added.
The minimal drop in bunch weight led to lesser boxes exported to other countries. Its foreign markets include Japan, China, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Hongkong, Middle East, Russia, and New Zealand.
Despite the decrease, Tadeco remained optimistic of its international market.
“The market is hungry for our banana because of the reduction in the overall banana production due to El Niño,” he added.
Meanwhile, Navarro said the company was able to implement measures to mitigate the effect of El Niño before it peaked this summer.
“Our researchers had conducted studies on how to mitigate the adverse effect of the dry spell,” he said, adding a risk assessment was conducted months before the onset of the El Niño.
The firm had to change some of its farm inputs to lessen the impact of the phenomenon to its 6,639.85 hectares of areas planted to Cavendish bananas.
For now, he said, Tadeco is conducting studies on how it would fast track the recovery of its banana plantation. “Recovery period may take eight months.”
Meanwhile, Tadeco is dubbed as the largest banana producer per hectare in the country with an average of 5,000 boxes per hectare, surpassing the industry average per hectare of only 3,500 boxes.
Earlier, the Department of Agriculture confirmed that banana was one of the high value crops (HVC) damaged by El Niño.
The Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) also said other banana companies in Mindanao are also suffering from El Niño effects.