China's banana producing area prices unlikely to rebound at year-end; losses for Guangxi banana farmers are a foregone conclusion

In the blink of an eye, 2017 is almost over, and for China's Guangxi ( agricultural land, commercial and residential land, industrial land) banana planting industry, this year has been somewhat difficult. What was supposed to be a bumper harvest per mu and thus a banana "big year" unexpectedly took a hit on prices. Although the banana market has generally warmed up recently, with banana prices in some areas even rising by more than 1 times, unfortunately the peak banana production season in Guangxi has already passed. Local banana farmers helplessly say that the overall loss situation this year is basically certain, and there is no possibility of turning it around.

It is understood that as the year-end approaches, banana prices at domestic producing areas in China have seen a sharp rise. According to statistics from Zhuochuang Information, banana prices at producing areas rose from 0.51 yuan per jin in mid-October this year to 1.48 yuan per jin, a cumulative increase of as much as 190%. Industry analysts say this situation is mainly due to the fact that bananas in Guangxi producing areas are nearing the end of their market period, with supply declining, while Yunnan ( agricultural land, commercial and residential land, industrial land) producing areas have recently had more rainfall and relatively low temperatures, slowing banana growth. At present, only a small amount of bananas from Honghe ( agricultural land, commercial and residential land, industrial land) and Hekou are on the market. This situation is expected to improve only by mid-December, when bananas from Yunnan producing areas will be supplied to the market in concentrated fashion.

Unfortunately, despite this, the final-stage "sprint" in banana prices still cannot free Guangxi banana farmers from their loss situation. As is well known, Guangxi is China's main banana producing area, and Pubei County is also known as the "hometown of bananas." This October, which was originally the peak harvest season for Guangxi bananas, local banana plantations instead presented a bleak scene. Because banana purchase prices continued to decline, at the lowest reaching only 0.3 yuan per jin, calculations showed that banana farmers could recover costs only when the purchase price remained above 0.7 yuan. Many banana farmers helplessly gave up harvesting and watched as bananas rotted in the fields.

It is reported that, in fact, since 2015, Guangxi's banana industry has begun to enter a downturn, with purchase prices continuing to slide and still showing no improvement. Some industry insiders point out that this is the result of disorderly local planting and also a concentrated manifestation of the chronic problems in Guangxi's banana industry erupting in recent years. Relevant data show that in 2014, domestic banana sales entered a golden period, and that year banana purchase prices reached as high as 4.3 yuan per jin, attracting a large influx of social capital. From 2014 to 2016 alone, Guangxi's banana planting area nearly doubled compared with before. By 2016, Guangxi's total banana planting area was 1.835 million mu, with output of 3.426 million tons. This year's planting area is basically flat compared with that, and output has also increased somewhat. Large-scale disorderly planting has intensified vicious competition in Guangxi bananas, and a large-scale increase in output is bound to have an impact on prices.

In addition, it is introduced that September to December each year is the marketing season for Guangxi bananas. Affected by earlier climate conditions, some bananas originally marketed in early winter came to market early in autumn, causing a large number of bananas to be supplied to the market in concentrated fashion, and costs such as labor and packaging remain high, severely squeezing banana farmers' profit margins. There is news that relevant departments in Guangxi are actively taking countermeasures to help banana farmers get through the difficulties.