Just a few months after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's visit to China, business between the two countries has picked up considerably. This is true for Philippine fruit producers in particular, who couldn't previously export to China.
It's never been busier at this banana packing plant in the Southern Philippines. The orders have doubled this year and they're coming mostly from just one country – China. A.R.R. Agri-Business Corporation has actually been exporting bananas to China for years. In fact, its only market was China, until sovereignty issues over islands in the South China Sea almost brought diplomatic relations of China and the Philippines to a halt.
Philippine banana exporters were hit hard by the territorial dispute between China and the Philippines. This plantation, for instance, was exporting some 30,000 boxes of bananas to China each week before 2012. From 2012-2016, when tensions between the two countries were at their highest, they exported only half of that number.
A.R.R. Agri suffered too, but was saved by orders from the Middle East. Today, however, their production can hardly keep up with China's demand. In early March, Chinese and Filipino companies signed agreements for the exportation of some 1.7 billion US dollars' worth of Philippine bananas – and other fruits – to China. China's Ambassador to the Philippines, Zhao Jianhua, said that's just a tip of the iceberg.