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Food Production at a Local Scale
Banana Production in the Philippines
GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND ECONOMIC & POLITICAL CONDITIONS
Government Policies
After the fall of the Marcos regime in 1986, the new government promised a major land reform program aimed at dividing large farms and some publicly-owned land for redistribution to small farmers and agricultural workers. Many of the banana export industry's expansion plans were suspended following the change of government because of these land reform plans. Both foreign-owned plantations and some of the land leased for banana-growing would have been affected. Castle and Cooke responded by diversifying its investments in the Philippines, for example into prawn-growing and processing. Del Monte, however, threatened to move their banana export operations to Thailand or Indonesia, again showing the power of TNCs to use their potential global mobility in securing political and economic environments favourable to local operations.
National Economic and Political Conditions
These had a major impact on investment in banana exporting especially by Filipino businesses based in Davao and Manila. General economic conditions and political instability affected the interest rates which Lapanday's owners paid on their large loans and the degree to which investors generally were prepared to move money into export industries. These conditions also affected the value of the Filipino currency which determined how much the plantation would receive from export contracts which were written with the TNCs in United States dollars.
Authorised by: Professor Robert Fagan
Photograph courtesy of Dr Peter Krinks
Designed and compiled by J. Davis
Date: 21.02.2004
Revised:
Copyright 2004