A long dry spell in the Philippines has caused banana production to fall by around 30 per cent over the last six weeks, according to the president of the country's Banana Growers and Exporters Association Stephen Antig.
Davao City recorded only 16mm of rain in February, compared to 157.5mm in January.
Banana plantations require a regular supply of water and because only large companies have their own irrigation systems installed, the dry conditions are resulting in a lot of undersized fruit, Business World reported.
Mr Antig said that since the first week of February, banana growers had been producing small, underweight bananas not suitable for export.
According to Mr Antig, around 18,000ha of the 40,000ha of banana plantations in the Davao region have been affected by the dry weather.
If exported, one hectare of banana trees could be worth 500,000 pesos (US$10,938) each year, or about 3,700 13kg boxes, with the export price valued at around US$2.65 per box.
If 30 per cent of the affected 18,000ha was unsuitable for export, the potential cost could be around the US$175.2m mark.
'We still believe this is temporary and we haven't thought of reducing manpower,' Mr Antig said.
'Aside from water conservation and installation of irrigation systems, we are just praying for divine intervention.'
