The government and the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) will spend P4.5 million for a marketing campaign that aims to promote Philippine bananas in Japan.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) will shell out P3 million, while PBGEA will spend P1.5 million for the marketing and public relations (PR) campaign.
Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar issued Special Order (SO) 108 authorizing Jose I. Laquian, the Philippine Agricultural Attaché to Japan, as special disbursing officer (SDO) for the conduct of a PR campaign for Philippine bananas in the Japanese market.
As SDO, Laquian has been authorized by Dar to obtain a cash advance of about P3 million “to defray costs/expenses related” to the PR campaign.
Under the SO, the P3-million fund would be used for the hiring of a PR company to conduct the campaign.
The SO stipulated that the PR and marketing campaign shall be conducted from February to June.
Counterpart
PBGEA Executive Director Stephen A. Antig confirmed to the BusinessMirror that his group would contribute P1.5 million for the marketing campaign.
Antig said the marketing campaign would revolve on three key concepts—”awareness, appreciation, and acceptance” of Philippine bananas, particularly the challenges related to banana production.
“We will try to make the Japanese consumers aware that there should really be a price adjustment otherwise we cannot sustain our production locally and our exports to Japan. We will make them aware that the current buying price is really not sustainable because of the spiraling production costs,” he said in an interview.
“Once they are aware of that, hopefully they will appreciate our efforts to continue producing quality bananas for their market. That’s the reason why we’re not cutting back on our production inputs, because we want to continue producing high quality bananas for the Japanese market.”
Antig said the domestic banana industry is optimistic that the marketing campaign would enable producers to secure the support of Japanese consumers for their bid to adjust prices.
Initial proposal
Last year, the BusinessMirror broke the story that Filipino banana exporters are urging the government to initiate talks with Japanese retailers for a possible price increase to help them cope with rising production costs.
In a letter to Laquian, PBGEA sought the support of the government in requesting higher prices for Philippine bananas sold in Japan.
Citing data from Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, PBGEA noted that the purchasing price of bananas in the East Asian country for the past seven years has remained flat at $2.36 per kilogram.
“Production costs have increased substantially over the last 7 years with this year (2020) being the most substantial,” the group told the BusinessMirror.
Aside from disease outbreaks, members of the group are now grappling with Covid-19-related problems, such as rising freight costs and stiffer competition posed by Latin American and Southeast Asian banana producers in key banana markets of the Philippines.
PBGEA said it saw an “unprecedented” increase in their key inputs, such as fertilizers which rose by 100 percent; kraft paper used for boxes, 53 percent; plastics, 65 percent; and maritime freight, more than 100 percent due to the global shortage of containers.
Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data showed that Japan remained as the country’s top importer of Philippine bananas as it accounted for 38.14 percent of the total volume of exports last year.
The Philippines exported 923,060.755 metric tons (MT) of bananas to Japan last year, which was 34.75 percent lower compared to the 1.414 MMT recorded in 2020. (Jasper Y. Arcalas)
SOURCE: https://businessmirror.com.ph
