Multiple causes
According to Zhang Jian, head of the market section of the provincial Department of Agriculture, Hainan experienced low temperatures, frequent rain and less sunshine last winter, causing winter and spring bananas to be harvested at the same time, which oversaturated the market.
"In April, bananas from Myanmar were also imported to Hainan and sold at a rather low price, about 8 yuan ($1.2) for a box weighing 23 kilos," said Zhang.
A heavier blow came from rumors, added Zhang, that bananas from Hainan contained ethephon, considered harmful to people's health. "Nobody ate bananas and fewer trucks came to buy. Farmers had to feed them to pigs."
Zhang said this year's price decrease follows years of increases. In the last two years, the rising price of bananas drove farmers to grow more, and planting area grew by 25%， resulting in increased harvests by almost 200,000 tons.
"A game of the rich"
About 30% of Hainan's growers are private farmers, who are also the major victims, Zhang noted.
"I invested 400,000 yuan ($62,000) and lost it all," said Chen Guangquan. A wry smile tugged at his mouth as he fed his pigs bananas, a lot more of which were piled up in the yard.
Banana planting has become "a game of the rich," added Chen. "The land rent was only 450 yuan ($70) per mu five years ago, but it rose to 1,500 yuan ($232) this year."
According to Shao Shiwen, about 80% of growers are wealthy non-locals, and rising land rent and labor costs have driven the overall cost of the banana planting industry to rise.
"The big planters control the price," added Shao, "while the private farmers are forced into a passive position."
Reporters found that many rich businessmen from Guangdong Province had become planters in Hainan following an investment of more than 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) in a plantation covering more than 2,000 mu (329 acres).
Government intervention needed
With bananas sales low, the provincial government has begun looking at ways to help familiarize farmers with market-regulating mechanisms.
Zhang Jian said that banana market booms run in a three-year cycle. Generally, planters make profits in the first year, break even in the second year, and lose in the third.
The government should be involved in regulating and controlling banana planting and stabilizing purchase prices, suggested Shao Shiwen, who went to the Philippines in 2001, where he saw the government settle market prices by subsidizing local farmers.
