Banana is the leading fruit grown in the Philippines and a consistent top-dollar earner. Its prospects in the domestic and foreign market continuously increase as demand for fresh and processed banana is on the rise. While the Cavendish variety constitutes the bulk of export earnings for bananas, the cardava variety is gaining a niche as a banana chip as another emerging export winner.

The banana industry specifically the cardava variety is one of the priority industries of Davao Oriental due to its high growth potential. Based on projections, cardava banana chips export performance will grow at an average of 10% per year; the local market for cardava in urban centers is growing as alternative healthy snack food such as banana cue, fried banana, turon, etc.; and, domestic demand for lakatan and latundan (both table bananas) is expected to increase at an average of at least 3% per year.

Based on the record, Davao Oriental has 27,931.00 hectares of areas planted for bananas and it has an average production of 16.5 metric tons/ha/yr.