China breaks Japan's 30-year record as the largest importer of Philippine bananas
Statistics show that the number of Philippine bananas imported by China last year increased by 70% compared with 2017, breaking Japan's record of more than 30 years and becoming the largest importer of Philippine bananas.
According to statistics from the Philippine Bureau of Statistics (PSA), China imported 1.273 million metric tons of bananas from the Philippines last year, which was 16.56% higher than Japan’s imports. Japan imported 1.092 million metric tons of bananas from the Philippines last year.
According to the report, the Philippine Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) believes that the reason for the increase in China's imports is simple: it benefits from the huge population and economic scale.
PBGEA Chief Executive Officer Andige said: "We have long known that benefiting from its economic growth, it is only a matter of time before China surpasses Japan to become our largest market."
He said that with economic growth, China has begun to purchase better quality bananas; the warming of the relationship between the Philippines and China has also caused China to further open up the import of Philippine bananas.
Rolando, CEO of the Food and Agribusiness Center of the University of Asia Pacific in the Philippines, believes that the rapid increase in China's middle class and improved infrastructure to make inland logistics more convenient will help the growth of Philippine banana exports.
On the other hand, he pointed out that Japan’s annual per capita consumption of bananas is about 8 kg, which seems to have reached a bottleneck period. In addition, the ageing population and late marriage and non-marriage have led to a shrinking family size, which has slowed down the growth of Japanese banana imports.