Major market of this exportable banana is China but this market imposed stringent policies that caught the producers by surprise making it hard for them to enter the (China) market.
In the meantime that this sector is still on the process of meeting the new market requirements, banana trees continue to produce fruits and yet no available market where to ship the products.
The producers then started looking for options and instead of the fruit going to waste, the banana growers started promoting Cavandish bananas in the local market and sometimes they supply public elementary schools with ripe bananas to school children for free in support of the school's feeding program. Here's a story I write about the status of the banana industry here ...
Davao small banana growers group promotes cavendish bananas in the local market
DAVAO CITY, July 6 (PNA) -- The Federation of Cooperatives (Fedco) in Mindanao, which is composed of small banana farm growers in the island, is considering the local market after their export of cavendish bananas to China remains unstable.
Fedco president Rene Dalayon said with their plan of exploring the local market, they will be assisted by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) under the Department's livelihood program for new businesses.
Dalayon was interviewed during the company's 13th anniversary activity at SIR Elementary School and Bucana Elementary School where they delivered truck loads of ripe bananas and distributed the fruit to over 2,000 pupils in both schools.
Dalayon said the activity was to promote fresh cavendish bananas in the local market especially to kids even as he said that they would like to encourage consumers to patronize the fruit.
"This is also one of the steps that we would like to do to help the small banana growers," he said.He said in their talk with DOLE XI, they proposed for the establishment of a ripening room that will make the shelf life of bananas longer than by just using Ethrel that is being practiced in the market here for ripening of fruits and other agri products but with shorter shelf life.
"But when the bananas are placed in the ripening room, it will prolong the shelf life for up to 40 days," he said.
Fedco is composed of 15 cooperatives and in Davao Region it operates in Davao City, Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley Province. The total area in the island consisted of 4,000 hectares.
Its biggest market is China where they deliver some 1.2 million boxes every week.
Fedco is among the active members under the Davao Region's Banana Industry Cluster where it earned the support of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on Industry Cluster Capacity Enhancement Program.
JICA supported Fedco with establishing export markets that paved the way for small banana farm growers to directly export their bananas.
Fedco used to sell their produce to big companies but they leveled up as direct exporters in 1999 in Japan.
The Japan market is still ongoing but with very limited volume for highland bananas, and a few in the Middle East, making China as their primary market.
Dalayon said although other exporters had resumed entry to China, still the number is limited.He even said that others resorted to chopping the trees while some are forced to sell the box at a very low cost compared to the export price of 5 dollars per box.
Per box weighs 13.5 kilos of 80 fingers. Meanwhile, Dalayon said they have started renegotiating with their Middle East market and hopefully would resume business by first week of September.
But he said they cannot go full shipment of their produce there because they have to compete with other exporters as well considering that big banana companies export their bananas to the Middle East.
"We can get a share perhaps and ship about 50 percent of our volume of production," he said.Just like what President Aquino has been saying, he said they are also exploring other markets like the US.(PNA)FPV/PrixDDBanzon/
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