MANILA, Philippines — Local corn farmers slammed a decision to import feed wheat, saying this will not exactly solve the high prices of corn.
The Philippine Maize Federation Inc. (PhilMaize) is opposing the expected arrival of feed wheat in the next few months, just in time for the harvest season of local corn.
PhilMaize president Roger Navarro said the decision to import feed wheat, a substitute for corn, is a sign of insensitivity on the part of the local feed millers who recently purchased 81,200 metric tons of feed wheat from the Black Sea and Australia. More than 30,000 MT of feed wheat will arrive next month.
“It is a case of double whammy as another volume is coming in by December, coinciding again with our second crop harvest in this time of the pandemic when all of us are in danger of losing our livelihood,” Navarro said in a text message.
“Instead of helping, the feed millers are aggravating the precarious situation the corn farmers are in right now,” he said.
While farmers cannot do so much as the commodity is already liberalized, Navarro said there is a need to calibrate and harmonize the appetite toward importation and the plight of corn farmers.
The Philippine Association of Feed Millers Inc. recently complained that traders are selling corn at P17.50 per kilo from the farmgate price of only P12.77 a kilo.
Imported feed wheat is only P12 a kilo.
Corn comprises 60 percent of the ingredients for the production of animal feeds. Feeds take up 80 percent of the cost of meat and chicken production.
“We cannot solve high prices with imports. To stabilize supply and prices, there should be a balancing act by way of not importing during harvest. They constantly complain about high prices when there is no harvest, then import during that time,” Navarro said.
“They should be sensitive enough to know our historical traditional harvest pattern and not just deliberately import whenever they feel like it,” he said.