PH bananas cleared for entry to Hawaii, Guam

More Americans will be able to enjoy Philippine-grown bananas as the US government has allowed the entry of the fruit to Hawaii, Guam and Northern Marianas.

According to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (Aphis)—which is under the supervision of the US Department of Agriculture—fresh, green Philippine bananas can enter the Pacific state and the two territories starting Nov. 10 this year.

This comes in the wake of a similar rule that allows the importation into the United States of Philippine mangoes harvested in places other than Guimaras Island.

“As a condition of entry, the bananas will have to be produced in accordance with a systems approach,” the Aphis said in a new rule that was made public on Oct. 10.

The systems approach requires importation of commercial consignments, monitoring of fruit flies to establish low-prevalence places of production, harvesting only of hard green bananas, and inspection for quarantine pests by the Philippines’ Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI).

“The bananas will also have to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate with an additional declaration stating that they were grown, packed, and inspected and found to be free of quarantine pests,” the agency said.

“This action will allow the importation of bananas from the Philippines into Guam, Hawaii and the Northern Mariana Islands while continuing to protect against the introduction of plant pests,” the Aphis added.

According to the agency, it does not expect this new rule to have a significant economic impact on commercial producers of bananas in the United States, whose farms are mostly small.

The Aphis noted that commercial production of bananas in the United States takes place in Hawaii, a state that also imports the fruits. The United States imports a total of about 4.1 million metric tons of bananas yearly.

The Aphis believes that the quantity of US imports from Philippines is relatively insignificant at just about 0.05 percent of US imports from other countries.

“Hawaii as well as the US territories already import bananas from other places since the volume of banana consumption is greater than their production,” the agency said.

“Consumers in Hawaii and the US territories would benefit from the additional source of fresh bananas which are of similar quality as the domestic ones,” it added.

Last June, the BPI said, local banana exporters looked for inroads into other US markets following an initial shipment of some 6.5 tons of Cavendish Dole sweet bananas from Bukidnon to California in August 2013.

According to the Aphis, the Philippines expect to be able to ship about 1,814 MT yearly, if granted access to the US as a whole, including Hawaii and the US territories.