China, the Philippines biggest export industry, imposed tighter controls after it claimed pests were found in banana imports.
Banana grower Josephine Capagcuan says 90 per cent of the produce from her Mindanao farm used to be exported to China; now, it's rotting away.
"Towards the end of May this year, China just stopped buying our bananas so it is a big impact especially to the banana growers," she said.
"We're having a hard time to finance our area anymore especially the farm inputs and also our labourers. We can't pay their salaries for them."
Philippines is the world's third biggest exporter of bananas, exporting an estimated $380 million worth each year, with most of them grown on Mindanao island.
The Banana Growers and Exporters Association says in March, Chinese quarantine officials discovered some scale insects in one of the containers shipped to China.
It says they officials claim they then discovered millibugs in 43 other shipments.
But the association's Stephen Antig says most in the banana industry believe it's about more than just bugs.
"This has never happened in the last ten to twelve years that we have been exporting to China," he said.
It's estimated that as many as 200,000 people will lose their livelihood if China continues to restrict imports.
