Philippines may lose in banana export race

Illustrative image (Photo: Internet)

Hanoi (VNA) - The Philippines may lose in the banana export race amid continued stiff competition in the global market, prompting the government to allocate some 263 million peso (12.49 million USD to save the local banana industry.

Philippine Agriculture Secretary William Dar has instructed agricultural attaches in China, the Republic of Korea, and Thailand to monitor the global situation as other banana-producing countries continue to take other markets from the Philippines.

The country’s banana exports went down by 11 percent to 1.03 billion USD from January to July due to Panama disease or fusarium wilt, affecting banana farms and plantations in Mindanao.

Last July, the Philipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association Inc. (PBGEA) projected that the industry is looking at a big drop of as much as 20 percent in volume to 162.2 million boxes from last year’s 195.5 million boxes. This is more or less equivalent to 1.65 billion USD export sales, down 15 percent from last year’s 1.95 billion USD.

Bananas comprised 30 percent of the total value of agriculture exports of 6.39 billion USD in 2019. The Philippines remains the world’s second largest banana producer, following Ecuador./.