Corn farmers prefer more local support over lower tariffs

MANILA, Philippines — Local corn farmers are urging the government to focus on supporting and stabilizing local production instead of lowering tariff rates of corn imports, which will discourage the local industry.

At a public hearing by the Tariff Commission (TC) yesterday, Philippine Maize Federation (PhilMaize) Roger Navarro expressed strong opposition to the proposal of the country’s economic managers to lower tariff rates and expand the minimum access volume (MAV) for corn imports.

“The effects of this tariff reduction will surely be felt by at least 850,000 Filipino farming families who are dependent on corn, with at least five each per family member. Easily this will account for 4.5 million Filipinos dependent on corn farming, not to mention the multiplier effect of labor involved along the corn service chain. Surely this will not inspire our Filipino people, instead will cause unhappiness, contributing to poverty and risk of peace and order in the countryside,” Navarro said.

The country’s economic managers are proposing to lower the most favoured nation (MFN) tariff rates of corn imports to five percent in-quota and 15 percent out-quota, with an MAV of four million metric tons (MT) until December.

Navarro said the country should instead work on supporting and stabilizing local corn production instead of depending on imports, which are mostly short term and greatly disruptive.

“We must maintain the current MFN tariff structure to put in-place our local corn productive capacities, install the necessary post-harvest facility, storage, and terminals nationwide that the corn sector so badly needs to stabilize corn supply and prices, making predictable corn input cost and farmer’s incomes,” Navarro said.

He urged the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Budget Management (DBM) to collaborate and put forward financial and development resources for the corn sector.

For his part, Philippine Association of Feed Millers Inc. (PAFMI) president Edwin Mapanao expressed support for the economic managers’ proposal to lower tariffs on corn imports, but pushed for a tariff rate of five percent for five years.

“PAFMI believes that the merits of strengthening the availability, accessibility, and affordability of yellow corn used for feed milling, in relation to the government’s goal of food security and managing inflation due to the conflict of the Russian-Ukraine conflict,” he said.

Navarro also cited the need to have a clear calculation of the country’s demand requirements for corn and the supply management of livestock.

He stressed the need to calibrate importation on specific volume and time frame.

United Broiler Raisers Association (UBRA) president Elias Jose Inciong also stressed that the country’s economic managers should set a benchmark to measure the success of the lower tariffs and additional MAV to ensure that it results in a reduction in feed costs.

He emphasized that there is also no guarantee that international corn prices will stay at the current level.

“And if the tariff commission or the economic managers announce a four million MT increase, that may trigger a further increase in international prices,” Inciong said.

“If the price of international corn goes up and it is almost at parity with local corn, we would not have local corn because we discouraged the local corn farmers,” he said.

Moreover, Navarro said the government should put in place enabling policies that would strengthen the local corn industry.

“We must support the creation of the Philippine Corn Development Administration/ Authority to manage, implement developmental policies and projects of the corn industry,” Navarro said.