Banana production in the Philippines declined in the first half of 2013, according to a report by the country’s Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS).
The fall was attributed to two typhoons affecting most banana-growing provinces.
The BAS report put banana production for the first six months of 2013 at 14,518 metric tonnes, a reduction of 8.1 per cent from the same period in 2012, where the country produced 15,799 metric tonnes of bananas.
Banana plantations in the Davao provinces and Northern Mindanao were said to have not yet recovered from the damage caused by Typhoon Pablo (Bopha), the strongest tropical cyclone to ever hit the Philippine island Mandanao, at the end of last year.
The decline was further exacerbated by production falls in banana-growing provinces including Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan.
