Davao's new banana products debut in export market

Banana fries

A new banana "frozen" product from made in Davao has now hit the international market, with its first shipment of twenty metric tons to the Middle East, specifically the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The manufacturer is is Davao-based Sagrex Foods of Ferdinand Maranon. He said he was actively promoting Davao's export products, including his new and innovative frozen cardaba bananas.

Aside from KSA, Sagrex Foods is also looking at other markets such as the United States, Taiwan , and Korea .

So far, his Sagrex Foods is the only export firm in Mindanao pioneering in the production of frozen ripe Cardava banana, which can be easily cooked into what he calls as "Pinoy fries" and "turon" (fried ripe bananas). Earlier this year, Maranon was among fourteen business leaders who joined a trade and investment mission to the Middle East led by the Department of Trade and Industry – National Economic Research and Business Assistance Center (DTI-Nerbac).

The Department of Trade and Industry said that during their visit in KSA, Sagrex Foods' products gained positive feedbacks. The traders, distributors, and OFWs expressed intense desire for the products to be made available in the market.

"I can confidently say that Sagrex's partnership with KSA will go a long way because I've personally witnessed the interest of Arabs to really market the products locally," DTI pointed out.

It was learned that the shipment is just the start of the company's strong partnership with its buyer in KSA. The country hosts about 1.4 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

"Our buyer in Saudi, an Arab businessman married to a Filipina, is also interested to order Pinoy fries and turon but as of now, we can't meet their demand yet, because we are still waiting for our new equipment," the Sagrex head said.

It was noted that the company's plant capacity is only 1.5 MT per day. With a new machine, production level is expected to improve and "we are expecting the equipment to be in by December or early part of 2008 and the company's expansion will commence upon its availability." he added.

Microwaveable frozen bananas

With the planned expansion, the company is expecting to accommodate more orders from various clients, both local and international.

"Last year, we sent 10 metric tons of microwavable frozen bananas to Korea for market testing and sampling. With that, we immediately received an order of two 40-footer containers (one container loads 20 MT) per month but with our present capacity, we really could not meet their demand.

Moreover, Sandoval said, the expansion will also let them cater to the demand of the local market.

"Isang taga-Davao na businessman ang lumapit na sa amin para bumili ng aming produkto for them to export to Australia . A fast food chain is also interested to get our Pinoy fries. Kapag nandyan na ang aming bagong makina, hopefully, tuloy-tuloy na ang tanggap namin ng orders," Sandoval said.

Banana, being the region's enrolled commodity under the One Town One Product (OTOP) program, keeps on soaring high as manifested by this development, Cruz said.

OTOP is a priority program of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that aims to promote entrepreneurship and create jobs. Through OTOP, local chief executives of each city and municipality take the lead in identifying, developing and promoting a specific product or service, which has a competitive advantage.

Based on the report of the Bureau of Customs (BoC) and DTI-Nerbac Davao, the region already recorded a total export value of US0.38 million for fresh and processed banana during the first semester of this year