The Philippines is now the top banana exporter in Asia and second biggest in the world. They have been recognized as one of the most efficient banana producing countries offering the highest quality standard in terms of taste and aesthetic appearance.
These bananas thrive best in the southern island of Mindanao blessed with vast rich land, even rainfall, abundant sunlight, excellent water and gentle wind.
Tissue culture
The golden banana as we know today begins its life here at the tissue culture laboratory. Carefully selected planting materials are propagated under strictly hygienic lab conditions.
Tissue culture helps: To mass propagate their bananas, to produce uniform growth of their bananas and finally they wanted to produce disease free planting materials. After about 6 months in the laboratory and 8 weeks in the nursery, the grown planting materials are ready to be planted in the field.
Biosecurity and harvest
PBGEA member producers strictly comply with bio security and phytosanitary requirements to control any infestation. They must go through designated food paths and tyre dips.
While drones are being considered by some growers these days, aerial spraying remains an economically viable crop protection measure. Air spraying of fungicides is efficient and effective method of controlling black sigatoka disease of bananas. 10-12 weeks on the field after bagging, the mature bananas are harvested. These are cleaned and carefully inspected and selected for export market.
Importance
The importance of cavendish exports to the Philippines economy cannot be ignored because banana is the most important agricultural export product of Philippines. The companies have taken steps to help its agrarian reform beneficiaries improve their living conditions.
