Banana exporters lose P174M weekly
DAVAO CITY -- The banana exporting industry has been losing P174 million a week, or a total of P1.44 billion, since March 5 when China started to impose stricter regulations on the shipment of bananas from the Philippines.
In fact, as of Thursday afternoon, there are at least 1,500 container vans still being held for inspection in major ports in China, the Philippine Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) said.
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PBGEA president Stephen Antig said this is a result of the stricter quality measures recently imposed by the Chinese government.
He said under the new quality measures, if a single insect/mealy bug is found in a box, the whole container will be rejected and will be sent back to its origin or the Chinese government will dispose them.
Mindanao exporters, including small banana farmers, have been shipping more than 600 40-footer container vans containing a total of 924,000 boxes per week. Each container van has around 1,540 boxes.
Antig said Beijing Customs Inspection and Quarantine has already banned the entry of container vans of 41 exporters from Mindanao into China ports, including Dalian, Shanghai, Tianjin, Beijing, and Qingdao, after finding insects in a box of bananas.
China, Antig said, has given Philippine exporters until June 1 to comply with the new stricter requirements, including the improvement of the packing facilities.
