The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has released numbers on the country’s fruit production for the fourth quarter of 2018.
The Asian nation’s largest horticulture commodity, banana, rose by 0.6 per cent to 2.42m tonnes in the period when compared to the year prior.
Cavendish made up a majority of volumes exported, accounting for 51.9 per cent, followed by saba (27.6 per cent), and lakatan plus other varieties (20.5 per cent).
Production of mango increased by 0.5 per cent, to 27,620 tonnes, and pineapple increased 1 per cent to 706,460 tonnes.
Business World reportedCalamansi, a popular Philippine citrus fruit, saw production increase 4.6 per cent up to 26,750 tonnes.
Declining categories included peanut, eggplant, sweet potato and cassava, while increases were seen across mung bean, cabbage, tomato, and onion categories.
Cabbage and Bermuda onion were the categories with the highest increase in volumes produced, up 2.5 per cent and 7.8 per cent respectively.
The country is currently eyeing export opportunities for its calamansi citrus and saba variety bananas. Currently, there is a two-year plan in place to explore new ways of boosting output and export volumes for calamansi, and trade missions planned to explore new market potential for saba bananas.
The Philippine government is also currently in the process of securing access for bananas to Australia.
