The Philippines is in possession of 90 percent of the Japanese market for bananas, the East Asian nation’s most preferred fruit. Japan tinkered with getting supplies from other countries farther than the Philippines, like top producer Ecuador, Vietnam, or Mozambique. But the Philippine banana is a Japanese fixation.
President Duterte and his economic managers tried to secure this fort in the Japanese fruit-eating market during a state visit last week in Tokyo. One of two deals all but secured the Philippine foothold in the Japanese market: starting 2017, 20 million boxes of Cavendish bananas will be imported, courtesy of Farmind Corp., worth at least P10.6 billion, if this volume will be shipped annually.
Farmind Corp. alone collars 30 percent of the import market in Japan. A competitor, Sumifru Corp., a subsidiary of Sumitomo Corp., also gave a letter of intent to the Philippine trade department to increase its investments, targeting its Davao region operations. Sumifru also supplies about 30 percent of the bananas sold in Japan, according to Sumitomo.
Huge fans
The Japanese do love Philippine bananas, the country’s agricultural attaché in Tokyo, Dr. Samuel Animas, told the BusinessMirror. And the prospective investment deals with Sumifru and Farmind will secure the country’s continued dominance of the Japanese banana market, Animas added.
Bananas started to become a Japanese craze after the World War II. These fruits grow best in tropical countries, like the Philippines. And the geographical proximity of the Philippines was as an advantage, as local producers could send fresher bananas to Japan.
Japanese trading companies have invested in Philippine banana plantations since the 1960s, especially those located in banana-rich Mindanao. These initial investments, like that of Sumifru, were scaled up since the 1980s, given rising demand from Japanese customers.
From 2002 to 2012, Philippine bananas imported by Japan soared from 743,500 metric tons (MT) in 2002 to 1.027 million MT in 2012, according to the latest Banana Market Review and Statistics report of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).
According to the Philippine government data, Japan imported 605,492 MT of bananas, amounting to $277.035 million in 2015. Government data showed that Japan accounts for more than 30 percent of the Philippines’s total banana exports annually.
New consumers
The Japanese’s love affair with bananas has turned generational, as the fruit is also a hit to the new crop of customers—the working class who are always on the go and want ready-to-eat meals upon coming home. For this new generation of consumers, Animas said the banana is sweet and is easy to consume.
“The Japanese want to slice their fruits right away. Everything should be convenient,” Animas said.
Japan Times reported in March that the banana lords it over other fruits as its status in Japan is seemingly “guaranteed by economics and convenience,” especially for young people.
