Bananas etc.

One Saturday morning two weeks ago, I went up to another part of Bukidnon. This time it’s the western side of the hilly province. I was to attend a meeting with the people behind the Del Monte banana packing house. They set up a meeting with their “Buyers” (entities who purchase the banana rejects) Their aim was to set a standard in determining the weight load of reject bananas for distribution in the local market. By local market meaning the bananas you see being sold in our wet markets, that did not pass export standards, like size and appearance.

The series of Packing Houses are located along the roads of Talakag, Bukidnon, virtually giving employment opportunities to local residents. One companion quipped, he saw one local princess of a certain tribe, working segregating bananas.
Some things I noticed though, women are given the task of sorting and determining the quality and men are given the heavier task, like piling of cases, boxes and packing.
During the meeting, it was agreed that, Del Monte will consider the idea of just giving away the bananas for free, right now they are purchased at Php 1.95 per kilo, in lieu of the Buyers providing manpower for cleaning the entire Packing House. It is a welcome change indeed for the Buyers, who right now are encountering problems in terms of distribution, especially when there’s heavy downpour, and in Bukidnon, that can go for days.

Additional opportunities include, the chance of surrounding Barangays, to earn. Overly ripe and deformed bananas are not sold to local markets, instead they are unloaded to houses along the roads, for chopping and drying. Here the Buyer buys back the chopped and dried bananas at Php 4.50 per sack and sold to feed mills.
Going back to Talakag, after at least ten years, was an eye opener. No more bad roads. And corn and cassava chips are not the only means of livelihood for the locals, they have water rafting, bananas, and developed tourist spots, like caving and nature hiking.