Feedmillers seek measures to increase feed corn supply

MANILA, Philippines — Local feedmillers are pushing for stopgap measures to raise the country’s feed corn supply – a major feedstock component of poultry and livestock growers – via importation.

Philippine Association of Feed Millers Inc. (PAFMI), which represents 37 feedmillers in the country, said the immediate importation of corn would boost local supply and substitute for the higher-priced feed wheat.

PAFMI urged President Marcos in his capacity as agriculture secretary, to prioritize end-users in the allocation of imported feed corn under the Minimum Access Volume (MAV) Plus, which will allow the additional volume of imported grain to reach feedmillers and mixers in shorter time.

Under DA Administrative Order 52, the DA Secretary is authorized to give priority to end-users in the allocation of the MAV Plus for grains in cases that may prove beneficial to the sector.

For corn, end-users include the feedmillers and feed mixers, many being livestock and poultry growers themselves.

Prioritizing end-users in the allocation of corn under the MAV Plus will shorten the process distribution and help temper the rise in prices.

The DA MAV Committee was also urged to decide as soon as possible on the proposed increase in the MAV volume for corn to two million metric tons, which would give the feed industry enough flexibility to produce the country’s requirement for the second half of the year.

Currently, the country imports over four million tons of feed ingredients such as corn, feed wheat and other corn substitutes to augment local supply, which has been falling short of the requirement of the animal feed sector.

Last May, then president Rodrigo Duterte signed Executive Order 171, which lowered the tariff on corn imports from 35 percent to five percent until the end of the year.

With farmers unable to afford higher priced fertilizers, local corn production is expected to further drop this year.

Based on data from the National Corn Program, local corn harvests reached only six million metric tons last year, way below the demand of more than nine million metric tons.

Last month, the United States Department of Agriculture revised downward its projection for the country’s production of corn to 7.9 million metric tons (MT) from an earlier projection of 8.3 million MT.

PAFMI said prices of chicken in the market have gone higher and this trend is expected to continue in the coming months should corn imports be further delayed.

The depreciation of the peso against the US dollar has aggravated the price of imported feed ingredients.

In June, the Philippine Statistics Authority said high food and petroleum prices mainly drove the 6.1 percent rise in the consumer price index. Inflation from meat climbed to 8.1 percent in June, from 5.4 percent in May.