China nods 32 Myanmar banana companies for import

China greenlighted Myanmar’s 32 banana companies for import, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
For legitimate trade, Myanmar’s 32 banana companies have registered with the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China (GACC), according to the Agriculture Department.
The tissue-culture bananas will be exported to China through a legitimate channel.
Since 2007, tissue-culture bananas have been cultivated as opium poppy substitution. It was delivered to China as an alternate crop replacing opium poppies through border trade.
Myanmar pocketed US$5.868 million from tissue-culture banana exports to China in the first half of the current financial year 2022-2023, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
Those bananas have been commonly grown in Waingmaw, Momauk, Shwegu and Mansi townships in Kachin State and Ngao township in Sagaing Region since 2006. They were sent to China via the Lweje border.
The country primarily delivered tissue-culture bananas to China in the monsoon season via the Kampaiti border.
Myanmar conveyed 1,900 tonnes of tissue-culture bananas with 76 trucks in the first week of November to China through the Kampaiti border. The export volume increased against that of October.
The harvest season of tissue-culture bananas has commenced in November and exports will rise for sure, the banana growing companies stated.
There are more than 60,000 acres of tissue-culture bananas across Kachin State, the Kachin State government’s data showed.
Among those agricultural products registered with the GACC, the products that have a government-to-government agreement grasp a strong market share. — TWA/GNLM