October 22, 2012

Due to corn hoarding in Philippine's Mindanao region, consumers will likely experience a shortage of pork in the second quarter of 2013.

The shortage could reach 30% by April next year when hoarding of corn, a major cereal feed for hogs, hits its peak, said Rep. Nicanor Briones of Agricultural Sector Alliance of the Philippines (AGAP) on Thursday (Oct 18).

He blamed the impending shortage on "over hoarding" of the supply of local corn feeds.

"The shortage will not yet be felt in December, but in April," Briones said.

AGAP called on Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala to look into the alleged corn hoarding of large distributors, particularly the Mindanao Grain Corp., while urging the government to import corn feeds to put an end to the practice.

"Distributors will be forced to bring out their trade once there is an oversupply of imported corn feeds," he said.

Apart from importation, Briones said the Agriculture and Trade and Industry Departments should inspect corn feed warehouses of traders, and investigate those without corn farms or millers, who are likely hoarding the corn feeds.

"Despite (being) harvest time, the cost of corn has gone up from PHP12 (US$0.3) per kilogramme to PHP17 (US$0.41) per kilogramme. We (should) have enough supply because it is harvest time. The price of corn went up because of hoarders," Briones said.

Because of the higher production cost, hog raisers were left with no option but to sell their pigs for a higher price, he noted.

"Consumers, 70% of the country's backyard hog raisers and the 40 million agriculture farmers would have to bear the brunt of the impact of hoarding next year," he said.