Philippine-based company Agrinurture (ANI) has signed an agreement to undertake P1.72bn (US$40m) worth of agribusiness projects with the county government of Tianyang in the Chinese Province of Guangxi.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported the company has signed a ‘letter of intent for cooperation’ for banana planting, organic demonstration farms in the Philippines and Guangxi, and organic fertilizer production.
The projects are scheduled to commence in 2011.
The newspaper also reported ANI plans to increase banana exports to China to ease a growing glut from the recently imposed trade barriers with Iran, its second-largest market for the fruit after Japan.
ANI president and CEO Antonio S Tiu told the newspaper his company would be expanding China-bound shipments to 100 containers, at 1,550 boxes per container, every week.
Presently, ANI ships 20 containers per week to China and will gradually increase this to 100 containers weekly toward the end of the year, to prevent a sudden price drop, the newspaper reported.
The Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association president Stephen Antig told the publication Iran is yet to make an official announcement on any ban, but at this stage is not renewing import licenses for Philippine bananas.
The association has been looking for other markets in the Middle East, which could absorb some of the supply that used to go to Iran, he told the newspaper.
Compounding problems for the country’s agriculture industry, the Department of Agriculture estimates Typhoon Juan has caused P11.53bn (US$268m) of damage to the sector.
ABSCBN News reported high-value commercial crops (HVCC) sustained P600m (US$14m) worth of damage during the typhoon.
A total of 6,371ha of HVCC area were affected, of which 5,072ha were planted to vegetables, 681ha to mango and 609ha to banana. An estimated 21,710 tonnes of product was lost, the news source reported.
Agriculture Undersecretary Joel Rudinas said the bulk of the losses in vegetables came from Benguet, La Union and Pangasinan. Mangoes from Pangasinan and bananas from Apayao were also destroyed by the typhoon, he added.
