In the second quarter of 2019, China’s fondness for Philippine bananas seems to have intensified as it doubled its orders for the fruit, driving total shipments up by 80 percent to 1.445 million tons as of end-April.
The country’s total exports in the January-to-April period expanded by 645,333.179 tons from last year’s 800,598.136 tons, preliminary data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.
A BusinessMirror analysis of PSA data showed that the total value of exports rose by almost 80 percent to $655.019 million, from $364.933 million recorded in the same period last year.
China led all foreign buyers with purchases doubling to 531,971.282 tons from last year’s 265,836.157 tons. Total shipments to the Chinese market were valued at $229.154 million, 90.5 percent over last year’s $120.293 million. China is now the country’s top market for bananas after it ended in 2018 Japan’s 30-year reign as the top importer of the Philippine tropical fruit.
Filipino banana growers and exporters are increasing their shipments to China as they seek to take advantage of its growing economy and huge population.
Some key Philippines markets already saturated
Analysts also noted that some of the Philippines’s key markets for bananas are already saturated, forcing exporters to find other more “lucrative destinations.” “You can never go wrong with 1.3 billion people. China’s economy is growing by leaps and bounds over the years,” Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) Executive Director Stephen A. Antig stated. “We knew that it’s only a matter of time [before] China would overtake Japan as our top market due to its growing economy.”
China’s customs data disclosed to the International Trade Center (ITC) the confirmed increase in the shipments of Philippine bananas to the Chinese market, but there is a disparity between the figures of the ITC and the PSA.
This is because data from the ITC indicated that the country’s shipments of bananas to China were lower at 359,223.36 tons. This volume is nearly 28 percent higher than the 280,829.715 tons it purchased in the same period last year.
Data from the PSA showed that Japan, now the country’s second top buyer of bananas, increased its purchases of the tropical fruit by 90.45 percent to 441,929.866 tons. The shipments were valued at $222.229 million.
