DAVAO CITY—Thirteen of the Davao region’s major crops and fruits turned bigger yields last year, helping it keep its reputation as a leading fruit country in the South, and boosting the dollar earnings of the region.

The increase came amid the controversial decline in the production of palay and two other crops, coffee and cacao.

Banana and coconut led the major crops in volume of production, along with pineapple and rubber, which continued to banner the region in export earnings, according to statistics of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

Banana and coconut posted less than 10-percent growth, 8 percent and 2.9 percent, respectively, but their sheer volume of production dwarfed all the other crops combined.

Banana had 2.945 million metric tons (MT) in 2006, and increased it to 3.18 million MT last year. Coconut yielded 2.497 million MT in 2006, which increased to 2.569 million MT the following year.

Banana is the region’s main crop and export commodity, the Neda said, and ascribed the increase in production to the expansion of cultivated areas and more bearing hills in Davao del Norte, Compostela Valley and Davao City.

Though there was a decline in export value by 0.76 percent, according to the Neda, “fresh bananas, banana flour and banana puree continued to dominate the region’s exports accounting for a 58-percent share.”

Banana earned P$417.7 million last year, down from $420.9 million in 2006.

Its byproduct, banana chips, came in to offset the decline, and earned $33.2 million last year, turning in 29- percent growth even though banana chips was only entered recently on the list of top earning exports.

Coconut, also a major crop in the eastern part of the region, showed its strength, earning for its byproducts, such as activated carbon, charcoal, dust and briskettes, with $33.2 million. This was 15 percent higher than its earnings in 2006, the Neda said.

But it was dessicated coconut chip which enjoyed a bumper year last year, with its $13.9 million earnings, which the Neda said was slightly more than half, or 56 percent, higher than its previous earning.

Neda said that other coconut byproducts—coconut acid oil, cake and liquor—joined the region’s top export products last year, earning $7 million, although coco coir exports dropped to $500,000.

The Neda said that coconut “recovered last year due to sufficient rains,” and added its production showed that the crop hardly minded the “pest infestation that has perennially plagued the industry.”

In terms of export, fresh and canned pineapple was the region’s second largest dollar-earner, earning $120.8 million last year, a growth of 144.5 percent, from $49.4 million in 2006. Last year’s earning accounted for 17 percent of the region’s total export earnings.

Exports of another export-earner, mango, turned in $2.4 million last year, both for fresh and processed, although the Neda said that the fruit was not yet in the company of top exports of the region.

Mango increased its yield to 38,081 MT last year, from 33,518 MT in 2006. By volume of production, mango was in the sixth rank among the 15 major crops and fruits of the region.

Ranking 11th among the region’s major crops, rubber, along with coconut, were among the industrial crops performing well.

Rubber earned $42.2 million, although this was 2.5 percent lower than its earnings in 2006 of $43.3 million. But it was rubber that was the third-highest merchandise exports of the region.

Rubber turned in also a minimal 2.1-percent increase in production, from 16,036 MT in 2006, to 16,376 MT last year.

Lanzones topped the list in the percentage increase of its production, although its volume was only at 2,345 MT in 2006, but jumping by 159.2- percent growth to 6,078 MT.

The other major crops of the region in last year’s ranking included sugar cane (ranked third in production), posting 23-percent growth to 616,195 MT last year; palay (4th) with a decline by 10.3 percent to 427,184 MT; corn (5th) 3 percent up, with 354,247 MT; pineapple (7th), 15.7-percent increase, to 22,452 MT; durian (8th), 81 percent up, to 51,222 MT; coffee (9th), down by 15 percent, to 24,466 MT; papaya (10th), up by 36.5 percent, to 18,421 MT; abaca (13th), 7.3 percent higher in production, to 9,554 MT; and cacao (15th), down by 3.3 percent in production, to 3,476 MT.

THE Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s largest power distributor, has petitioned for a provisional authority from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to adjust its rates by P0.1938 per kilowatt hour (kWh) covering the second regulatory period from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009.

SENATE Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. denounced a World Bank guideline discouraging the grant of state subsidies to rice farmers while urging the government to reduce the tariff on imported rice.

THE Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a total of $1.44 billion worth of loans for several projects of the Philippine government.

DAVAO CITY—Thirteen of the Davao region’s major crops and fruits turned bigger yields last year, helping it keep its reputation as a leading fruit country in the South, and boosting the dollar earnings of the region.

DAVAO CITY—The world’s largest data-collection company put up its second multimillion-peso offshoring and outsourcing (O&O) operation here in the Philippines, six years after it opened its Cebu call center.

LEGAZPI CITY—Philippine entries to the global search for the “New Seven Wonders of Nature” that include the Mayon Volcano here continued to improve their chances to get into the finals, which would be known early next year.

BAQUIO CITY—The Benguet Electric Cooperative (Beneco) is now ready to enter trading in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) after the expiration of its 25-year contract with the National Power Corp. (Napocor) on March 25.

Current estimates place the number of mobile-phone subscribers in the Philippines at about 40 million with text traffic hitting the 100 million mark daily.