October 8, 2012

 

Philippine pork producers assure stable pork supply in Christmas

 

 

Hog raisers in the Philippines assured stable supply of pork in December but warned of a spike in the product's prices due to the rising price of feeds.

 

Edwin G. Chen, president of the Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines, Inc. (ProPork), said there is ample supply of pork until the holiday season.

 

Chen says traditionally, demand for pork and other meat products slow during the third quarter and results in bigger stocks in farms as well as inventory in the cold storage facilities ahead of the holidays. By December, the consumption doubles or triples but the inventory can meet the demand.

 

He noted, however, that feed costs are slowly increasing partly due to the drought in the US. The prices of soy and feedwheat have risen, and there has been an unusually low supply of yellow corn in the market despite a bumper corn harvest in the first half.

 

The price of corn has also surged to more than PHP17 per kilo despite the supposed good harvest and Chen said they believe there's a move by some corn traders to hold their stocks, to corner the market.

 

Soy, feedwheat and yellow corn are main ingredients of animal feeds. The Philippines imports all of its soy and feedwheat requirements.

 

Corn harvests reached 3.47 million tonnes first half, a 4.81% increase from last year's 3.31 million tonnes, according to Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) data.

 

Chen said that stakeholders in the livestock and poultry industry are going to write to the Agriculture department to urge the government to investigate and track down hoarders to ensure the price of corn in the domestic market remains reasonable.

 

Normally, a spike in corn prices in January should urge importation of feedwheat so millers will be ensured of ample supply of feed stock before that period.

 

The Philippine Association of Feed Millers, Inc. (PAFMI) in June said it has already booked at least 1.4 million MT of feedwheat imports from Australia to meet its feed stock requirements for the rest of the year.

 

In 2011, local feed millers imported 1.071 million MT of feed wheat, 11.33% higher than in 2010.

 

PAFMI officials were not immediately available for further comment.

 

"We expect to come up with a recommendation by next week," Mr. Alcala said.

 

"Based on reports from the BAS, we only have about 10% standing crop of corn right now, which means that most of the corn from the last harvest is no longer with the farmers," he said.