Unscrupulous banana exporters list not out yet

PILIPINO Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) is now waiting for the list of unscrupulous banana exporters from the Plant Quarantine Services (PQS) after secretary Manny Piñol promised them the same during their last meeting late last year.

According to PBGEA executive director Stephen Antig, the Department of Agriculture (DA) had started giving export accreditation to banana exporters with at least 25 hectares of plantation.

Antig said Piñol did this so because a shipping container can be filled up with bananas equivalent to about 25 hectares of plantations.

“If they can’t fill up a container, it’s possible that they are going to buy from other exporters additional bananas just to fill it up. Chances are they will buy from stolen bananas, or those with low quality,” said Antig emphasizing the benefits of export accreditation for exporters with plantations of at least 25 hectares.

During their meeting with Piñol at Grand Regal Hotel last year, Antig said the Agriculture secretary promised them that a list of unscrupulous banana exporters will be released. Those on the list will have their accreditations removed. Antig said they have yet to be given a list and are now waiting for it.

“When the list is already there, at least it can help us known who are the blocklisted exporters. At least we would all know even when they start giving out alibis. It would also help us get rid of exporters that have low-quality of bananas. It will really help with the

banana industry,” said Antig. Currently, Davao Region has a total of 87,000 hectares of banana plantations and this includes those owners that have less than 25 hectares of land. Since most of the Philippine banana exporters, Antig said they are expecting that majority of the list of unscrupulous exporters may be coming from Mindanao.

“We are hoping that those unaccredited banana exporters will finally be removed from the list. There was an instance 4 to 5 years ago that a Philippine exporter exported substandard bananas to China and it was an issue. We hope that wouldn’t happen again and that exporters would really be accredited because some just export for the profit,” said Antig.