Philippine feed millers shift to Argentina soy

Feed millers in the Philippines are shifting to much cheaper Argentina soy imports.

The US once supplies 65 percent of the Philippines' importation of 1.5 million tonnes of soymeal annually.

However, the smaller import volumes of 1,110,284 tonnes due to decimated animal population caused by a series of destructive typhoons resulted to dwindling US' share to only 26 percent or 291,676 tonnes. Argentina captured 69 percent at 771,137 tonnes; India, four percent, 40,689 tonnes and; Brazil, one percent, 6,782 tonnes.

Soymeal provides the protein component in animal feeds normally comprising 20 to 25 percent of the feed formula.

US soymeal is about US$50 to US$60 more expensive and poultry raisers are the biggest users.

An 11-man trade team from US is in town to regain foothold in the Philippine soy meal market previously dominated by the US but has since shifted to cheaper Argentine imports. 

The delegation composed of soy farmers, state soy board officials, shipping agents and traders arrived yesterday for a five-day visit to promote US soymeal use with local poultry and hog farms. The group would also have discussions with feedmillers and farm operators.

Headed by Glen Heitritter a top level official of Ag Processing Inc. which is one of US' biggest agricultural cooperative and leading soy meal exporter, the trade team also seeks to look at exporting other agricultural products such as corn and DDGS or dried, distilled grain solubles to the Philippines. DDGS is the byproduct of processing corn to ethanol. It has high protein content with starch already converted to alcohol.