According to the Philippine Business Mirror, the Philippines, the world's second-largest banana exporter, continued to shrink its export share in Asia. The Philippines' share of banana exports in Asia has fallen to 60 percent from 90 percent last year, amid fierce competition from other Asian countries.
The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said banana exports from the Philippines fell 37 percent to 2.4 million tonnes from 3.8 million tonnes last year. In previous years, 90% of the total banana exports in Asia came from the Philippines which is the second largest banana exporter in the world after Ecuador.
According to the FAO report, banana production in the Philippines continues to suffer from the "combined impact" of the COVID-19 outbreak and the Panama disease, resulting in "severe" production difficulties. At the same time, the local production environment in the Philippines is also deteriorating due to hurricane damage and increased input costs, which has a greater impact on small-scale banana producers.
China and Japan have been major importers of Philippine bananas, but both China and Japan have drastically reduced orders from small-scale producers due to banana quality issues.
In addition to local production issues, the Philippines' share of banana exports in Asia has also been challenged by Ecuador, Vietnam, Cambodia, and India. The export volume of the above-mentioned countries all achieved large growth in 2021.
China is the world's third-largest banana importer, and its total banana imports increased by 5.2% year-on-year to 1.9 million tons in 2021, accounting for 10% of the global total. The Philippines' share of the Chinese banana market has shrunk to 45% from 50-75% in previous years. China imported about 700,000 tons of bananas from Vietnam and Cambodia in 2021, an increase of nearly 200,000 tons over the previous year.
Source: Nongcai Banana