Local banana growers are pressing the government to sign a bilateral agreement with South Korea to help reduce the 30 percent tariff imposed on Philippine bananas and make them competitive with similar exports to the north Asian nation.
The Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association said in a statement the Philippines could lose South Korea as a top export destination unless tariffs were removed to fairly compete with other banana exports in the market.
“Cheap banana imports from Central America have started to eat into the share of Philippine bananas in the Korean market and these could totally push us out of the picture by 2022 unless we get the same zero-tariff treatment as they do,” said PBGEA executive director Stephen Antig.
Losing the Korean market, which is among the top three destinations for Philippine banana exports, would rob 32,000 banana workers and over 200,000 dependents of their means of livelihood, the group said.
It will also result in the estimated annual export revenue losses of close to $300 million and another P6.5 billion in foregone local and national tax revenues.
The group said by 2021, the Central American countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama might start exporting their bananas to Korea at zero import tariffs.
Peru was already enjoying zero tariffs on their banana exports to South Korea while Colombia would get the same treatment three years from now, the group added.
Even Vietnam would sell bananas to South Korea at zero tariff by 2021, Valoria noted.
Sumifru Philippines Corp. president Paul Cuyegkeng said Filipino banana growers merely wanted a “level playing field” in competing with exporters from other countries not only in South Korea but in Japan and China as well.
“We are talking about protecting the banana industry and saving job. It would be highly ironic if we lose jobs in the banana industry which is mostly based in Mindanao when the main program of our President, who hails from this island, is job creation,” he said.
The group said the Philippines should negotiate separate bilateral deals to make the agreements country-specific and not regionalized.
