September 3, 2010

Corn centre to open in Philippine province

President Benigno Aquino will inaugurate a PHP500-million (US$11.16-million) corn processing facility in Isabela province during the 7th Philippine National Corn Congress next month.

"The new corn processing centre will be the biggest not only in the Philippines but in Southeast Asia," Philippine Maize Federation (Philmaize) president Roger Navarro said Tuesday (Aug 31).

The Reina Mercedes Corn Processing Center post-harvest facility is a project of Mindanao Grains Processing Co. Inc., a unit of La Filipina Uycongco Corp. Group of Companies and the Agriculture Department.

The facility can process as much as 200,000 tonnes of yellow corn. It is also equipped with state-of-the-art bulk silos that can store as much as 60,000 tonnes of grains for more than six months. It will buy fresh corn-on-cobs with 30% moisture from farmers and process them into high-quality grains for the feed milling sector.

Navarro said the corn processing centre would use equipment with advanced renewable energy technologies to help in reducing greenhouse gas and attaining energy self-sufficiency. The facility will use the cob by-product as biomass fuel for the dryers.

"The immediate benefit to our small corn farmers will be higher income by as much as 15% as the centre will buy the produce from farmers directly as corn-on-cobs, bypassing trader and layers and give them spot premium on cash basis," he said.

Philmaize said corn farmers would avoid post-harvest risks, especially from drying grains along the roads during the wet season months.

The government said July-December corn production would contract 0.4%, to 3.80 million tonnes from 3.82 million tonnes on-year. Harvest area is expected to contract by 0.5% due to unrealized plantings in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, Central Visayas, MIMAROPA, Caraga, Western Visayas, Ilocos Region Calabarzon, Bicol and Eastern Visayas. Yields may remain at 2.46 tonnes per hectare.

This year, corn production is expected to decrease 11.7% to 6.22 million tonnes from 7.03 million tonnes in 2009. In the first half of 2010, production fell 25% from 3.22 million tonnes on-year, as brought about by reduced hectarage and the El Niño weather phenomenon.