April 30, 2007

Philippines seeks higher 2007 corn harvests, lower imports

The Philippines is targeting to augment its corn harvest by nearly 14 percent to 6.9 million tonnes this year to reduce dependence on imports and wheat, agriculture officials said on Friday.

The Department of Agriculture said the government has started distributing higher-yielding corn seeds and fertilisers to increase production by about 835,000 tonnes from last year's harvest of 6.08 million.

Dennis Araullo, corn programme director at the Department of Agriculture, however said he expects the grain's shortfall for animal feed to be 428,000 tonnes this year, about a third of the 1.3 million tonnes deficit in 2006.

But industry executives forecast this year's corn shortage is at between 900,000 tonnes and one million tonnes.

The Philippines has been importing yellow corn in recent years for animal feed as local production cannot meet the needs of local poultry and livestock farmers.

Butch Umengan, executive director of the National Corn Board, a local industry alliance of local farmers, traders and users, said he expects corn supply deficiency would reach 1 million tonnes which will be offset by imports of 400,000 tonnes and the rest would be supplied by wheat.

The government has approved the import of up to 400,000 tonnes of corn this year, of which 120,000 tonnes have been bought by local feedmillers and poultry and livestock firms for June/July delivery.

The Philippines will hold a tender on May 17 to buy another 80,000 tonnes of yellow corn for June/July arrival.

Local firms had so far contracted to buy 273,000 tonnes of feed wheat, mostly from China, between January and June this year, just half of the 560,000 tonnes bought in the same period last year, according to data from the Philippine Association of Feedmillers Inc.