The Department of Agriculture (DA) is urging feed millers to reduce their purchases of imported feed wheat and corn so farmers would be encouraged to plant more corn.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said he will also ask feed millers to buy local corn to help prop up the farm-gate price of the grain and boost farmers’ income.
“If the feed millers will be patriotic enough to patronize local corn, then we can encourage our farmers to plant more,” Piñol told reporters in a recent interview.
“We are calling on local feed millers to consider the procurement of local corn over imported corn. Maybe there’s a difference in price, with locally produced ones being slightly higher, but it will contribute to greater progress and prosperity in the countryside,” he added.
The DA chief said he would meet with representatives of the feed milling sector next week. “I would appeal to their sense of patriotism. How much would they lose if they buy local corn instead of imports? If they would do it, they will help address poverty in the countryside.”
Earlier, Philippine Maize Federation Inc. (Philmaize) President Roger V. Navarro said the recent decline in the farm-gate price of yellow corn, particularly in Regions 2 and 3, may also be attributed to the recent importation of corn and feed wheat.
“Around 250,000 metric tons [MT] of corn and almost 2 million metric tons [MMT] of feed wheat were recently imported,” he said. “This dampened the farm-gate price of yellow corn.”
Yellow corn and feed wheat are used as raw materials in manufacturing animal feeds.
Citing data from the Bureau of Customs, the Philippine Association of Feed Millers Inc. earlier said the Philippines imported some 2.6 MMT of milling wheat in 2016, 4 percent higher than the 2.5 MMT recorded in 2015.
Earlier, Philmaize said favorable weather conditions will drive corn production this year to reach 7.6 MMT, 5.26 percent higher than the 2016 record of 7.22 MMT, according to
the Philmaize.
Philmaize President Roger V. Navarro said corn production would have been higher if some farmers did not shift to planting other crops, such as pineapple and cacao, because of low corn prices.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) had projected that corn output for 2017 would reach 8.01 MMT.
“[The forecast] is not attainable. The best the sector can do is around 7.6 MMT,” Navarro said.
Last year’s corn output of 7.22 MMT was 4 percent lower than the 7.52 MMT produced in 2015, data from the PSA showed.
Image credits: Bloomberg