Rise of fuel price is also affecting Philippines banana production cost

Bananas from the Philippines used to take one to two weeks to reach China. This delivery time has been significantly extended due to the pandemic's impact on sea freight, thus creating a market gap in China’s banana market. Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam’s banana industry has wisely utilized this market gap through faster shipping lines from their respective countries.

In response to this, shipping companies have started to launch newer vessels to cater to the rising demand for cargo and impose cost-cutting measures to improve the economic feasibility of the ships. On the other hand, the continuing rise of fuel prices significantly affects banana production in the Philippines. With fuel prices rising, banana production costs are also on the rise.

However, with pandemic restrictions slowly easing up in the Philippines, labor shortages are becoming less of a problem. This will hopefully help and boost the Philippines to become a top exporter of bananas again, especially in China, despite the persisting international and local logistics problems.