Japan grabs Philippine banana supplies
Philippine banana exports are tracking slightly lower than last year, with available supplies shuffled to Japan
Despiteearlier estimates of growthin the Philippines’ banana exports this year, export volumes at week 32 were 1.3m cartons lower than the same time last year.
Export supplies have been left short in some cases because of the ongoing Japanese banana diet craze, Fruitnet.com was told by Jimmy Tenazas, senior vice president of Del Monte Fresh Produce Asia-Pacific.
“As of week 32, Philippine banana exports to Japan were 11.2m cartons higher than last year, with proportionate reduction in banana exports to the Middle East by 10.4m boxes,” Mr Tenazas explained.
He said the banana boom in Japan was beginning to slow because of the availability of supplies, and because of Japanese consumers’ summer preference for watermelons.
The limited export supply also hit the Russian market, which Mr Tenazas said had maintained stable demand despite the country’s economic problems and currency devaluation. Volumes sent to Vladivostok were lower this year than last.
For new markets, recent access to Australia did not represent a particularly good opportunity for Philippine banana exporters, Mr Tenazas told Fruitnet.com.
“In my opinion, it will be very difficult to penetrate the Australian market with Phillipine bananas due to the very powerful anti-Philippine banana lobbying coming from Australian banana farmers.”
Meanwhile, the legal battle over aerial spraying in the southern growing region of Mindanao is ongoing, with the proposed bill to ban the practice drawing strong criticism from banana growers.
“The proposed bill in the Philippine congress and senate on the ban on aerial spraying is currently being contested,” explained Mr Tenazas. “It will be detrimental to the banana industry if it ever passes, so we are negotiating this proposal vigourously.”
There is some good news for growers, however; fertiliser costs have come down as much as 30 per cent this year, with lesser cost reductions in other agricultural inputs.
Current Philippines Banana Growers and Exporters Association forecasts peg the year’s total banana exports to hit 170m cartons (2.2m tonnes), up from last year’s 148m cartons (1.9m tonnes).
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