BANANA CONSUMPTION IN THE SOUTH
NEGROS, PHILLIPPINES

Norma Mugar, Alter Trade

Our main slide will present how our bananas are being grown, how they are exported and what are our problems. You will see how labour intensive our trading is, a trade that we consider as a people to people engagement, i.e. the people of Negros and our Japanese neighbours. I will try to show you the decades of trading with Japanese consumers and the struggle of people from Negros.

Negros is the fourth largest island in the Philippines.

Banana is the main crop for the moist and warm regions of South East Asia. It’s temperature requirements are easily met.

At the present, there are about 80 banana plantations in the Philippines. Our trade is engaged in the so called Balangon variety, an organic special and tasty variety. The fruit matures at 90 to 100 days after the last fruit that came out.

Our bananas are naturally grown in these kind of plantations (slide).

In 1986, we introduce to the farmer the alternative banana growing.

These are our growers; we provide them orientation for a better understanding of their responsibility as producers. We explain them the quality standard requirements.

These are the seminars that we are giving.

This is the actual banana planting procedure. First, lining is done by using a wooden material. This is to provide an appropriate distance which is necessary for better agricultural management. The seeds must be planted about 30 cm deep.

In this slide you can see women involve in banana planting. In these poor areas, the woman, apart from the task of taking care of the children, has to help bringing an extra income for the family.

These fruits are being handle to the selling points by van. The fruit is laid on the top of banana leaves to protect the skin from damages. These others are being taken to the buying centres in baskets that they carry on their shoulders. Other growers bring their produce with the help of a caravan, or in their own cars. We set up buying centres in an area and schedule a buying day. We see here the growers waiting for the arrival of our truck. Alter Trade provides free transport to get the bananas from the area. Growers are paid in cash. They will benefit from the fact that they will need no longer to bring their produce to the market and spend for transport costs. This way we assure a continuos trade throughout the year. This is what we mean by fair trade for the producers.

The fruits are piled and arranged properly inside the delivery truck, in such a way that bruises, and damages are minimised if not completely eliminated. Then they are delivered to the packing centre.

We have established a total of 8 packing centres all over the Philippines.

Packing starts as soon as the bananas come into the packing centre, but before the packing operation starts, orientation is given to the packers to review their function and responsibility.

Here we have the selection of the bananas. And this is the washing process; bananas are not to stay long in the water to prevent water absorption.

This is the trimming of the crowns. And this is the drying process.

After this, bananas are weighed and arranged inside cartoon boxes.

Since we have 8 packing centres he have a colour system to distinguish each area.

Bananas are transported from the packing centres to the nearest city for shipment to Manila. At this point we employ two months for transportation. Once in Manila, there are two ports of destination, Tokyo and Osaka. The most appropriate mode of transportation for these international routes is the refrigerated container van.

This is the arrival at Japan’s port. At this stage inspection is carried out to check the presence of insects, where once they are found, the whole container is fumigated. Inspection for the presence of yellow bananas is carried out by the customs checker. If yellow bananas are found, these boxes will be discarded and will be charged to us.

These aspects of quarantine inspection are a major problem because we don’t employ chemicals.

After the inspection process, bananas will be delivered to the ripening factory, which entails 3 to 5 days for the fruit to fully ripen.

These are Japanese co-ops members repacking the fruit into smaller quantities for delivery to their consumers.

These are Japanese consumers during a visit to Negros, a people to people meeting for integration.

These are our growers in Negros; we have about 2000 individual households.

For Alter Trade, banana trade is a people to people engagement, and we make a great effort to make Japanese consumers understand that they are getting a very special variety which is Balangon. And even if they don’t look as beautiful as the ones from the multinational, consumers look for it, and don’t mind paying the extra value to support our farmers in Negros.

Thank you.