An increase in production areas and good rainfall during crop development led to a slight year-on-year rise in production for Asia's leading banana exporter between April and June, with volume reaching 2.27 million metric tons (MT).

In a recent report, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported price declines however pushed down the gross value of banana production down 3.7% to PHP36.3 billion (US$707 million).

"Banana production made a turnaround with a 2.59 percent gain this year. This was due to the increases in areas and the higher number of bearing hills harvested, particularly, for the Cavendish type from the corporate farms in Sultan Kudarat, Bukidnon, Davao City and Davao Oriental," the PSA said.

"There were also reports of bigger bunches of banana harvested in South Cotabato and North Cotabato because of sufficient rainfall during the crop’s development stage."

Rainfall however was not so kind to mango growers in terms of yields, with production down by more than 10% at 546,280MT.

"Mango output decreased by 10.13 percent. Lower yield was noted in Pangasinan due to the infestation of cecid flies," the authority said.

"In Zamboanga del Norte, the early onset of rainshowers during the crop’s flowering and fruit setting caused the decrease in mango production."

Prices however were much higher as a result, and total mango values rose 32.5% to PHP20.7 million (US$403 million).

Production rose slightly for pineapples and coconuts, at rates of 0.99% and 0.68% respectively, but the growth rates in value were much higher at 11% and 14%.

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