SOURCE: The New Indian Express The area under banana cultivation in the district has increased after almost five years. Cultivation has crossed last year’s area and horticulture department officials said an additional thousand hectares were likely to come under cultivation by the end of November. Once cultivated in about 10,000Continue Reading
SOURCE: Aaron Bunch, The Canberra Times A second group of mango pickers is expected to touch down in the Northern Territory after flying from Vanuatu to help with the Top End harvest. Coronavirus health restrictions and closed borders stopped many seasonal workers travelling to the NT, leaving growers desperately shortContinue Reading
SOURCE: Madelaine B. Miraflor, Manila Bulletin Pineapple and watermelon are currently the most profitable fruit commodities in the Philippines with growers posting record high return of investments (ROI) of 377 percent and 220 percent, respectively among other fruit growers in 2019. This is based on the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA)Continue Reading
SOURCE: Tom Karst, The Packer Bananas remain America’s favorite fruit, but growth is slow at the top. U.S. banana imports from August 2019 to July were 5.12 million metric tons, up less than 1% compared with the previous year. By value, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports banana imports totaledContinue Reading
A four-part virtual workshop series on “Safeguarding the Banana Industry from Fusarium Wilt: Research Updates and Opportunities in Asia Pacific” will be held from October to November 2020 via Zoom, organized by the International Tropical Fruits Network (TFNet), the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Guangdong Academy of AgriculturalContinue Reading
SOURCE: The Philippine Star The country’s largest business group, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), is calling on the government to diversify the local banana industry in order to keep up with an increasingly competitive global market. In a webinar organized by the Stratbase ADR Institute on Wednesday,Continue Reading
Source: Joseph Jubelag, Manila Bulletin Some 500 workers of Dole Philippines Inc., a fruit processing firm in Polomolok, South Cotabato, lost their jobs after the company implemented its retrenchment program amid the economic slump brought about by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Jeremiah Mari Diana, the company’s corporate communications supervisor,Continue Reading
The St. Lucia government announced this week that 110 banana farmers attended two special workshops organized and conducted by the Taiwan Technical Mission in collaboration with the Banana Productivity Improvement Project (BPIP) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Physical Planning, Natural Resources and Co-operatives.Continue Reading
The Philippines may lose in the banana export war amid continued stiff competition in the global market, prompting the government to allocate some P263 million to save the local banana industry.Continue Reading
TFNet Advisor Yacob Ahmad was invited to present a keynote paper on “Crop protection in fruits and vegetables: Current scenarios and challenges” during the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) 2020 Crop Protection Colloquium on 25-26 August 2020 at the MARDI Headquarters. Crop protection deals with the management ofContinue Reading
Guy Gaeta is normally surrounded by dozens of foreign backpackers, busily picking cherries and chatting away in several different languages. But this harvest his orchards remain worryingly quiet after the world’s toughest Covid-19 travel restrictions caused a shortage of workers.Continue Reading
