Nothing definite on plan to export bananas to US

MANILA, Philippines - There is still no definite direction for banana exportation to the US because feight cost continues to be a concern, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala admitted yesterday.

“There is still no definite (direction) on that. But on bananas, we are still studying if we can be competitive. Because of the distance, we have to determine if the freight cost will be reasonable. But the US is a good market,” he said.

“We will study this because if we open up to this market, we do not want to be on the negative side. We want to provide them a good product,” he added.

The Unites States has expressed interest in importing bananas from the Philippines but freight cost, which could significantly increase the price of bananas, is still a major concern.

Because of the distance, Philippine bananas that would be shipped to the US are expected to make the fruit shipments uncompetitive with produce from South American countries such as Costa Rica, Puerto Rico and Ecuador.

It is feared that banana shipments from the Philippines would suffer from the same condition as Philippines mangoes which likewise competed from produce from South America.

Preservation of quality is not as much of a consideration as freight cost. Although it takes 27 days to ship bananas to the US, technology has been made available to preserve the quality of bananas.

After the imposition of stricter sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures by China on Philippine banana exports, the government has been searching for alternative markets for the fruit.

The country has expressed intention to export bananas to Israel, Egypt, Indonesia, Netehrlands, Cambodia, Russia, Mongolia, Jordan and Pakistan.

The governments is also putting up new packaging facilities in the South to enable small growers to conform with international exportation standards.