Tesda to teach how to convert bananas to feeds

The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) said it will teach workers how to turn into agricultural feeds the bananas recently rejected by China.

Tesda Director General Joel Villanueva said  Sunday he had instructed offices in the southern Mindanao region to gather relevant data needed to develop an alternative market for the  banana growers amid China’s stricter implementation of quarantine regulations on agricultural imports.

“Tesda is taking a proactive position and is now simultaneously gathering the relevant data needed in preparation for introducing an alternative market for the country’s huge banana produce,” Villanueva said in an e-mailed statement.

“Rotting bananas need not go to waste. We just have to tap the skills of our workers and the right technology to create an opportunity out of this event,” he said.

The manufacture of agricultural feeds, according to him, is one option which banana producers can venture into to guarantee that all their fruit would be turned into profit.

Since banana feeds are processed through natural drying, workers and planters could efficiently and quickly convert the bananas into feeds with the use of multipurpose dryers, he said.

Villanueva said that workers will undergo training on the complete process of making feeds from bananas using the available technology.

“We have to find alternatives like diversifying our markets and making new produce to make the industry less vulnerable to shocks,” Villanueva said.

Since March, China has tightened requirements for the entry of fruits after it claimed it found pests in bananas from the Philippines.

Reports said Philippine banana growers had lost at least P1.44 billion since the restrictions were imposed.

According to the National Statistics Office, the Philippines exported over 2 billion kilos of bananas valued at $472.4 million. Of this total, 403.4 million kg valued at $85.283 million went to China.

Villanueva said China also purchases pineapples and papaya from the Philippines.

Earlier, banana producers and exporters in Mindanao said they were considering tapping the government’s feeding program, as well as the domestic market, for their  bananas that were not sold to China.