AFTER China lifted its ban on the importation of banana and pineapple from the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte pushed for the creation of a new agency to focus on the development of the banana industry, the second biggest foreign currency earner of the country after coconuts.
“It’s a highly competitive world today and everybody is into the business of money and that is why there is a lot of competition going on,” Duterte said during the National Banana Congress in Davao City.
“Maybe, just maybe, the Philippines will make it big in the agricultural area,” he said, noting that very tight competition in the new industrial sector is expected over the next 30 years.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said the President favors a law enacted by Congress over a proposed Executive Order which called for the creation of a Banana Development Council.
Piñol said that the new agency will oversee the development, research and marketing of Philippine bananas and support the move of banana exporters to ask Congress to enact the Banana Industry Act of 2016.
Duterte said his efforts to reach out to the different rebel groups would have a big implication on the banana industry and other agricultural activities.
“Banana farming is really in Mindanao. But if you have rebels bothering you and even burning your equipment to extort money, your business will be affected,” he said.
The Chinese government has lifted the ban on the import of bananas coming from the Philippines after destroying more than 35 tons of bananas from the Philippines valued at $33,000 last March, and eventually suspended 27 exporters.
The bananas were destroyed in Shenzen, a major entry point for Philippine bananas, after notifications of non-compliance.
Last year, the Philippines exported 448,000 metric tons of bananas to China valued at $157.5 million.
Meanwhile, Piñol said Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua said his country was also interested in high-end fishery products from the Philippines including lapu-lapu, crabs, shrimps, prawns, and tuna.
China is also bound to increase imports from the Philippines particularly on high value commercial crops such as mangoes, coconut and dragon fruit, among others.
The Philippines remains the second largest producer of bananas worldwide, next to Ecuador, and it continues to supply 95 percent of the total banana demand for the Asian market.
“The lifting of the ban on banana and pineapple exports will come as a big relief to the agriculture sector which registered a negative performance of .4 percent in the first quarter of 2016,” Piñol said.