Japan awaits Philippines submission of preventive measures vs chemical residues in banana

April 11, 2019

DAVAO CITY - The Japanese government has yet to receive a report from the Philippine Department of Agriculture on how it will comply with minimum residue limit on banana exports after it found out a shipment in August last year that showed a certain chemical exceeded limits.

This was the most recent information relayed by the Philippine embassy in Tokyo and the country’s agriculture attache in Japan, after Japan reacted strongly to the presence of the insecticide called fipronil, whose residue exceeded Japan's minimum residual level.

Japan has reduced its minimum residue level on fipronil, from 0.01 parts per million to 0.005 ppm.

The Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (Pbgea) said it appreciated the response of the DA “to mitigate further violation of Japan’s MRL on fipronil and other active chemical ingredients, it baffles us why the issue has not been resolved yet after seven months since the first detection in August”.

The banana growers association sent a letter to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez on March 22.

Stephen Antig, Pbgea executive director, said Japan has required 100 percent mandatory testing of Philippine bananas since August. He said the required testing has been delaying the release of the Philippine bananas to the markets in Japan.

Japan’s health ministry has required the Philippine government, specifically the Department of Agriculture to submit the protocol for export to Japan. The DA’s Bureau of Plant Industry and the Plant Quarantine Services were assigned to submit the protocol.

Antig said the protocol was completed by the agencies and with the collaboration of the Pbgea “four weeks ago”, or sometime in early March.

“At this point in time, we are kept in limbo due to the inaction of the DA,” the Pbgea said in its letter to Dominquez.

On March 20, or two days before the Pbgea wrote Dominguez, the organization also wrote Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Pinol pointing out four comments of the Japan’s health ministry on the non-submission of the protocol.

The Pbgea said the Japanese ministry has received the reports and results of the Bureau of Plant Industry's audit “on certain companies”, but it said ministry officials would like to have the “formatted report that outlines the investigations of the violations and the countermeasures taken/to be taken by both the concerned exporters and the BPI”.

It also noted the monitoring system for exporting bananas by BPI but it said the system “is unclear” to the ministry.

“They received the list of audited companies that are compliant exporters to Japan, but they have not received any report on the process how the companies were audited and selected to be in the list”, said the banana growers group.

“MHLW {Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare} seems to be confused on the multiple updated versions of the protocol presented to them. They want to receive the latest / final and the approved version of the protocol,” and, “MHLW would like to know the official contact person from the Philippine government,” Pbgea said.

On April 3, Acting BPI Director George Culaste said the “answer to the latest comments of Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) is ready for submission to the Japan Embassy in Manila”.

He said his office received 13 notifications from the Japanese ministry. “Although most detections are not from Pbgea members, it is very difficult to convince the MHLW that the corrective measures are deemed sufficient to lift the 100 percent mandatory MRL testing”. Culaste said the ministry has continued to pose questions on BPI’s report.

“For this new banana export protocol, the reason for the several revisions is that we have been incorporating your comments and giving this due consideration,” he added. DMS