BANANA REPUBLIC : PLANTATION CONTACT FARMING AND

TRADE

BANANA

Bananas are highly palatable, a major staple

in the global tropical zone, an important cash
crop and nutritious fruit grown and produced
mainly in tropical and sub-tropical areas
the fourth most important crop worldwide for
developing countries, where they provide an
important starch source, especially in Africa
and Asia; banana provides various secondary
products like fibers, wrappers, confectionery,
vegetable catsup, wine and vinegar.
As a prime fruit commodity, bananas
contribute significantly to the Asian diet and
nutrition. It is also an important commodity
in domestic trade, thus providing income to
numerous small farmers and businessmen

Banana production
in the Philippines
can be categorized
basically into three
systems: Traditional
or backyard
growers,
smallholder
commercial growers
and agribusiness
plantations
(Kobayashi, 1985).

Plantations are predominant in Latin America but

in Asia as well

Typical plantations crops are perennial tree or

shrubs crops such as tea, coffee, cocoa, oil palm,
citrus, banana, rubber, coconuts and certain field
crops such as pineapples, sisal, and sugar.
Banana production for export is very recent and an
export industry is being established under the
stimulus of a growing Japanese market and with
the assistance of foreign commercial enterprise

Plantation economies of the world are chiefly in

tropical America and Asia. In these areas the
plantation has been the dominant economic, social,
and political institutions in the past continue to be in
the future. It was an instrument of political
colonization; it brought capital enterprise and
management to create economic structures which
have remained basically the same; it brought
together different races of people from various parts
of the world to labor in its service and thus
determined the population and social structures now
existing in these places.

SOCIAL INSTITUTION

from the words of Thomas Durant Jr.

(1999); its a peculiar social system.....
A way of life, a form of culture or a unit
of economic production where. It also
reflects the social hierarchy during the
colonial time that created distinct
classes based on status and origin.

Beckford (1972) identify various

ownership types of a plantation that
exist: private individuals, families,
limited liability companies, partnership,
cooperative societies, and state
ownership of one kind or another. The
three main types of in world agriculture
are limited liability companies, private
family and individual plantations and
government plantation.

high degree of vertical integration in the Plantation

economy (Beckford, 1990). The company owns
facilities for processing its own plantation output
and for supplying many of the inputs in the
Plantation production. On the other hand,
Horizontal integration co-exists in Plantation
economy, where companies integrate multiple
stages of production of small production units. The
horizontal integration may provide a strengthened
presence in the reference market. It may also allow
the horizontally integrated firm to engage in
monopoly pricing, which is disadvantageous to
society as a whole and which may cause regulators
to ban or constrain horizontal integration

The plantation was an institution best

suited to metropolitan need in colonies
of exploitation, and the Philippines fall
under this classification as the
periphery or colony of exploitation of
Spain

CONTRACT FARMING AND TRADE.

Globalization, trade liberalization and the lowering of

barriers to trade have generally led to an increased
inflow of foreign investments and the establishment
of multinationals in developing countries (Minten,
Randrianarison, & Swinnen, 2005). Economist,
policymakers, and critics argue that this type of
investment cause more harm than good as they
exploit the workers and permanent damage to the
environment; others argue that the country or the
region will benefit from this new trend of globalization
and liberalization for the development and prosperity
of their country.

The study of contract farming is particularly

exciting because it provides a window on
many themes of fundamental importance to
the literature of economic development
three interrelated issues especially
significant on in the analysis of contract
farming

Labor Question
Food Questions
environmental question

Contract Farming (CF) in dependency

theory frameworks as an exploitative
extension of international capital were
the capitalist from the used their power
and influence to exploit the resources
of the periphery for the economic gain
and the small farmer and peasant are
lose their edge in the economic game.

The political dilemma contract farmers face is

that their traditional strengths as petty
commodity producers, the flexibility flowing from
the deployment of family labor and ability to
reduce cash expenditures for household
consumption purposes, has been turned by the
system of contracting into a source of weakness
(Wilson, 1986). Furthermore, their independence
stands in the way of the kind of collective action
which would protect them from the inequities of
contract

The Multinational companies (MNCs) that are

engaged in a global market for fresh fruit like
banana have been the main driving forces
behind the shape and structure of the global
banana trade management
Production of bananas for exports is being
undertaken under the direction and guidance
of three Major companies, United Fruit
Company, Standard (Philippines Fruit
Corporation (STANPHILCO),

The overwhelming majority of the

bananas produced in the world are not
at all traded into the international
market. This is mainly because
bananas are stapled commodity in
many of the countries they are grown

CONCLUSION

that agriculture is no longer a phenomenon

based on rural society; it is a process of
production, like all other processes of
production, subject to the same rules as
others processes and comparable thereto.
Further studies needed in order to under the
contract farming scheme in the Philippines
and the role of contract farming and
plantation to the economic development

SALAMAT AT MAGANDANG GABI