THE government-owned National Agribusiness Corp. (Nabcor) has temporarily stopped selling corn to domestic buyers following the downtrend of the price of the commodity in Southwestern Mindanao.

Nabcor noted that the commercial buying price of corn is now at P8.60 per kilo, which is below the industry’s estimated production cost of P9 to P10 a kilo, said Zaldy Boloron, corn coordinator of the regional office of the Department of Agriculture here.

Corporate feed millers here have stopped buying corn at this time, but only on a temporary basis, he said.

Currently, the National Food Authority buys corn at P10/kg to help the farmers recoup their production cost.

Boloron said Nabcor has yellow and white corn varieties at lower cost.  Because of the growing inventory in Nabcor’s warehouses, the agency, in partnership with local government units, has installed eight hermetic cocoons in its storage facilities in the region so corn could be stored longer by as much as one year, according to Mario Apurada, Nabcor operations manager of Mindanao.

“The hermetic cocoon has a capacity to store 100 metric tons of corn grains. The storage of corn grain will last from eight months to one year,” Apurada said of the technology developed in Israel.

Hermetic cocoons were erected in the towns of Malungon in Sarangani province, Banga in South Cotabato and Kabacan in North Cotabato.

About 2,230 metric tons (MT) of corn-grain stocks are in Nabcor’s storage facilities in the region, according to a DA report. Yield during the previous two months or harvest from September to October this year is estimated to be 160,000 MT.