Confusion still surrounds the status of Philippine banana access to Iran, despite the insistence by the Philippine government that the country has not formally banned the importation of Philippine bananas.
Banana imports to Iran hit a sudden brick wall in late September, a decline attributed by sources in the Philippine banana industry to an embargo put in place by the Iranian government on 49 commodities, including a range of agricultural products.
But in recent days the Philippine government has insisted that there is no official ban, and said the halt in sales was a credit issue on the buyers’ side.
“It is now known that the trouble started not because of the supposed ban but due to the difficulty of Iranian businessmen in making a transaction,” Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, explaining importers had not been able to secure letters of credit.
Earlier reports, however, claimed that fruit traders based in the Middle East, particularly Dubai, who generally facilitate Philippine banana exports to Iran, had not been issued any import permits.
“The input we heard was that bananas were included on a list created to support/protect local farmers from outside competition, however after severe protest from the large fruit receivers it was recently removed,” Thue Barfod, Asia business development manager with shipper Maersk Line told Fruitnet.com.
“The outstanding challenges now are when will the government begin issuing the licenses again.”
Local media reports indicate that some shipments of Philippine bananas are now making it into the Iranian market, but the Philippine industry said the situation would take a long time to return to normal.
“We are now clarifying that there was no ban on bananas in Iran after all,” said Stephen Antig, president of the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA). “Iran has started to open up again…but I would not say it has totally normalised the situation.”
Whatever the cause of the sudden halt in Iranian imports, the impacts on the Philippine industry are of concern.
Iran is one of the Philippines’ largest banana export markets, and in a normal year accounts for 30,000-40,000 boxes of bananas.
Exporters have been scrambling to find new markets for the fruit, with China coming up as the best candidate.
The PBGEA has also presented the Philippine government, via Senator Teofisto TG Guingona Jr, with a six point plan to ameliorate the impact from the Iranian situation. The plan includes a banana-for-oil trade deal with Iran and a further push on the Australian banana market, according to information from the Presidential Communications Operations Office.
