Philippine banana chips exporters are seeking the help of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in an attempt to force China to bring down stiff trade barriers against the entry of the snack commodity into the huge China market.
Ruben See, president of See's Food Manufacturing, said it has been very difficult for the country's banana chips industry to penetrate the huge China market for snack foods due to high tariff of around 30 percent being slapped on this processed food commodity.
"We're having a hard time getting our banana chips into China on a regular basis because of this high tariff -- it makes our prices too high for this market in the mainland," says See, who owns and runs banana chips factories in Bulacan and Davao.
China is one of the country's biggest markets for processed foods, including banana chips, slicing nearly 14 percent of Philippine total exports from January to July 2008. Processed foods took the biggest chunk at almost 50 percent of the total Philippine exports last year.
Export trade promotion chief Senen Perlada of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is now looking into the plight of the country's banana chips exporters, assuring them that definite steps will be taken to work out this problem with China.
"We're looking into this and will take all the necessary steps to solve this problem facing our local exporters of banana chips," says Perlada, who also heads the government's Export Development Council (EDC).
Perlada met with See and other exporters in Davao recently during a sectoral export planning workshop, asking them to come up with a formal position paper on this matter so that government can initiate moves to take it up with the World Trade Organization, if necessary.
With China now looming as the country's number one export market for processed foods, Trade Undersecretary Merly Cruz has high hopes the tariff barriers in the China mainland on selected Philippine processed foods would ease up once trade talks get underway. source: PNA
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