March 24, 2004

Philippine First Quarter Corn Output To Rise 13%

Philippine corn output in the first quarter of the calendar year is expected to reach 1.526 million metric tons, up 13% from year-ago levels on an increased harvest area and favorable weather conditions, a senior official at the Department of Agriculture said Wednesday.
 
Art Salazar, the department's program director for corn, said prevailing high corn prices in the domestic market encouraged corn farmers to increase the number of hectares planted to corn.
 
Salazar said the harvest area increased 5.7% in the January to March period, reaching 634,602 hectares from 600,378 in the same period last year.
 
At the start of the year, local corn prices went up to as high as 12 pesos ($1=PHP56.37) a kilogram from PHP6-PHP7/kg a year ago.
 
Bullish corn prices are due mainly to a tight supply situation as strong typhoons that hit the country in July and August last year devastated many corn plantations.
 
Salazar said ongoing corn harvests in some parts of the country have softened local prices to PHP8.70-PHP9.30/kg.
 
The Philippines' 2003 corn output reached 4.6 million tons, up 7% from 2002.
 
Corn is used mainly as a major ingredient in animal feeds.