Possible lifting of EO 807

CEBU, Philippines - Last week, I received a reaction from my reader who reacted on my previous article on banana industry. As I am seeing a good point from him, let me share with you his thoughts on the possible lifting of Executive Order (EO) 807. His email in full reads:

“Dear Mr. Limtingco, First of all allow me to commend you on the articles you wrote about the banana industry. However, I would like to share some of my thoughts with you. The problem with the Australian market is not the stringent product standards but the political resolved of the government not to allow Philippine bananas to be exported to their country. To a certain extent, I can understand the position taken because once they allow our bananas to enter Australia, it can and it will wipe out the local banana industry. This is due to the fact that not only is the quality of Philippine bananas better, the prices are also much much lower due to our low production costs”.

“The issue with China is another thing. A lot of the local producers suspected that the tightening of the phytosanitary standards is an offshoot of the political rift. We should be able to prove this "suspicion" if and when the stringent phytosanitary standards will still be imposed even after the industry players have already installed and or instituted all the required improvements in the production and packing and shipping of bananas to China. The fact is, the stringent phytosanitary standards were imposed after China allegedly discovered some pest in the exported bananas. These pests however are not really harmful and can easily be removed if only the Chinese government will also cooperate by installing fumigation facilities in the port or quarantine areas. Personally, I believe the government should exert all efforts to address this problem of the China banana market because it has affected a lot of producers. Sadly some cannot now afford to send their children to school because of the crisis, so I heard. Now we go to the possibility of lifting the EO 807 issued by the Arroyo administration. God forbids, I hope this will not happen. The banana industry is 44 years old. It took the industry quite some time to develop a niche in   the world banana market. All this without the help of the government. In fact, when the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program was implemented, we thought that it was the going to be the end for the banana industry. However, we survived by working together and developing new strategies like leaseback and growership schemes. Over the years the industry continued to expand and in the process contributed greatly to the development of Mindanao. We are now operating in 15 provinces and 7 cities. We are proud to say that in areas where we are operating, the peace and order situation has improved significantly because of the employment that we are providing. It is an honor to claim that we are one of the biggest if not the biggest employer in this part of the country today. We intend to continue with this mission of alleviating unemployment and reducing poverty but we cannot and will not be able to do this if the limitation to the hectarage for banana plantation will be reimposed. Not to mention that the Philippine Banana Industry will then be less competitive in the world market. As it is, other producing countries are already taking advantage of the present situation between China and the Philippines by entering our traditional markets”.      

(to be continued)

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