Tadeco targets higher banana shipments

PANABO CITY, DAVAO DEL NORTE, Philippines — Tagum Agricultural Development Co. (Tadeco), the world’s largest contiguous banana plantations, expects to bounce back this year and next year given improved weather conditions and a new irrigation system.

Tadeco is eyeing to ship 32 million boxes or 432,000 metric tons of bananas in 2017 from the expected 30.9 million exports or 417,000 MT this year.

“Because of the improved weather, we expect better performance this year and next year. We can even reach 32 million boxes this year if only we were not hit by El Niño,” said Alex Cantil, Tadeco vice president for operations.

Tadeco is engaged in the production and export of Cavendish bananas to Japan, Hong Kong, China, Korea, Middle East, Russia, Malaysia and Singapore under the Del Monte and Dole brands.

It is the flagship company of the Anflocor Group of Companies, which manages businesses engaged in agriculture, container port terminal operation, packaging, production, real estate, trucking, resort development, food production, merchandising and financing.

“We are also banking on the irrigation system where fertilizers are included in the irrigation. We will be applying fertilizer in the most efficient way,” Cantil said.

In terms of export expansion, Tadeco is also considering new markets such as the US. 

“It’s a total different game in marketing. In many countries, fumigation, ripening process are required, heavy capital for facilities to market it and there are also issues of perishability,” Anflocor Group president and CEO Alexander Valoria said.

The 6,640-hectare Tadeco banana plantation ships an average of 6,000 boxes per day with the Middle East as the biggest market at 43 percent, followed by Japan and Korea with 23 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

“There is still high potential in the international market, China has gone up, Japan, Korea, Middle East especially Iran. There’s continued growth,” Valoria said.

Furthermore, the company is looking into areas outside Davao del Norte such as Davao Occidental, Compostela Valley, and Davao Oriental to further increase its production.

Cantil added that Tadeco continues to invest in state-of-the-art technologies and improve workers’ agrarian reform cooperatives to sustain it as among the country’s most financially stable areas.