High Value Crops: Banana Industry in the Philippines

Banana Industry Roadmap 2019-2022

Situational Analysis

Banana is the top traded fruit worldwide and the Philippines is one of the major

banana exporters and was ranked no. 2 next only to Ecuador in the past decades.

Typhoon Pablo in 2012 was a turning point that caused a sharp decline in

production in the hard-hit areas in Mindanao where the major production areas are

located. Recovery has been affected by other factors such as pest and disease,

changing weather patterns, and even the government focus on the rise of other

crops such as Cacao. In 2017, the Philippines regained the number 2 rank as

banana exporter.

The sharp decline in Philippine

banana export is starkly

demonstrated in the fact that

from a 237 million boxes

exported in 2011, only 187

million boxes were exported in

2016 or a 21% decline in

volume in a matter of five

years. At an average price of

$6 per box, this translates to a

$300 million loss to the

economy of Mindanao where

most of the banana growing

areas are located.(Delorenzo,

World Situation:

Exports:

Banana exports by country totaled US$12.09 billion in 2017, up by an average

22.3% for all banana shippers over the five-year period starting in 2013 when

bananas shipments were valued at $10.1 billion. Year over year, the value of global

banana exports appreciated by 14.8% from 2016 to 2017.

From a continent perspective, Latin American (excluding Mexico) plus the

Caribbean accounted for the highest dollar value worth of banana exports in 2017

via shipments amounting to $7.2 billion or 58.5% of international banana sales.

European exporters were responsible for 21% of total exported bananas, followed

by Asian shippers at 7.4%. African countries supplied 6.6% of globally exported

bananas with North American exporters coming in at 5.6%.

The listed 10 countries shipped 80% of all banana exports in 2017 (by value).

Among the above countries, the fastest-growing bananas exporters since 2013

were: Panama (up 861.6%), Cameroon (up 280.8%), Dominican Republic (up

134.2%), Côte d’Ivoire (up 131.5%) and the Netherlands (up 108.4%).

Five countries posted declines in their exported bananas sales: the Philippines

(down -28.7%), Belgium (down -25.9%), Germany (down -7.1%), Honduras (down

-6.5%) and the United States (down -2.9%).(Workman, Banana Exports by

Country, 2018)

Imports:

Global purchases of imported bananas totaled US$15.3 billion in 2017.

Overall, the value of bananas imports for all importing countries was up by an

average 5.1% since 2013 when international purchases of bananas were valued

at $14.6 billion. From 2016 to 2017, imported bananas appreciated by 3.8%.

From a continental perspective, European nations accounted for the highest dollar

worth of imported bananas during 2017 with purchases valued at $8.8 billion or

57.3% of the global total. In second place were North American importers at 20.7%

while 18.1% of worldwide bananas imports were delivered to Asian nations.

A much smaller percentage of imported bananas were bought by Africa (0.9%) and

Oceania (0.5%).

Table 3. List of importing markets for the product exported by Philippines in 2017

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VBxUcnt87B5lopzEDdY0O8_EN2e73pFV/view