“We can’t let these problems continue. These are the problems that resulted in the banana price war here last year when many banana growers turn their backs on their contracts and sought other buyers who paid higher prices for their fruit,” says Ireneo Dalayon, chief executive officer of the Federation of Cooperatives in Mindanao (FEDCO) who is leading the banana industry cluster team.
DAVAO , PHILIPPINES—– A newly-formed banana industry group here has set into motion a number of steps which will lay a strong foundation for better prices and productivity of the banana industry in Davao region.
Problems bugging the banana industry these past years that led to lower productivity, deteriorating quality and high production costs prompted the industry cluster group here to come up with a project that will address these problems.
The group is composed of banana farmers’ cooperatives, government agencies, private firms and with full support of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
“We can’t let these problems continue. These are the problems that resulted in the banana price war here last year when many banana growers turn their backs on their contracts and sought other buyers who paid higher prices for their fruit,” says Ireneo Dalayon, chief executive officer of the Federation of Cooperatives in Mindanao (FEDCO) who is leading the banana industry cluster team in the P1.2 million project funded by JICA along with other government agencies.
Dalayon said the project is looking at “institutionalizing” the banana industry cluster concept in the Davao Region that would assure both domestic and foreign buyers of high quality bananas.
All commercial varieties of fresh bananas grown in the region are covered by the foreign-funded project. These include the giant Cavendish bananas grown in big plantation scale in northern, central and southern Mindanao as well as local exotic varieties like the lakatan, latundan, bungulan, senorita and cardaba, according to Dalayon.
Chosen as the pilot project for the banana industry cluster team is the town of Sto. Tomas based on the team’s assessment that the municipality has big farm areas planted to the giant cavendish bananas and other exotic varieties, covering approximately 10,000 hectares of farms run by some 6,000 small farmers and contract growers.
Dalayon said the team wants to form a strong, well-organized banana cluster group in Sto.Tomas, solving their own problems and boosting the quantity and quality of fresh bananas “that can later be replicated by other banana producing areas in the entire Davao region”.
In one of their initial activities in July, the banana cluster team led by Dalayon went to Sto.Tomas and gathered together all the farmers and growers, together with their barangay and town officials to launch and introduce the industry cluster concept that will involve all of them in mapping out the destiny and direction of their farming ventures.
The banana industry cluster team was organized with the full active participation of the Mindanao Banana Farmers and Exporters Association (MBFEA), Federation of Cooperatives in Mindanao (FEDCO), Banana Industry Council for Southern Mindanao (BICSMin), Southern Philippines Agribusiness Marine and Aquatic School of Technology (SPAMAST), Department of Agriculture and Department of Trade and Industry. —-
PHILPRESS NEWS
Posted on December 5, 2010
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