January 28, 2023

Philippines' feed millers renew calls for corn development programme

The Philippine Association of Feed Millers Inc (Pafmi) a group composed of more than 30 feed milling companies in the Philippines, have renewed calls for an industry-based corn farming development programme to be implemented in the country, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported.

Pafmi said a long-term development strategy for the local corn industry should provide an incentive to modernise corn farming, and establish much-needed harvest and post-harvest infrastructure.

The group said that a national corn development programme that covers the entire value chain, from the farm until the produce reaches the market and industrial users, will enable the country to reduce its dependence on imports.

Pafmi said a yellow corn development roadmap had been created two years prior. In that plan, stakeholders acknowledged the need for an effective and stable supply chain of industry inputs like seeds, fertiliser, and other inputs; quality corn produced in effective production systems for food, feed, and industrial uses by empowered, business-oriented farmers in the face of climate change challenges; effective post-harvest systems for quality corn, and reduced cost and losses.

The group also advised pursuing science- and data-based policy decision-making and data collection/analytics, clustering and consolidating corn farms to achieve economies of scale in production and post-harvest linkages, improving vertical integration of yellow corn producers with the livestock and poultry industry, and increasing short-term corn availability to support value chains.

The Philippines' Department of Agriculture (DA) said the country's corn sufficiency level was 59% in 2022, and imports were still used to make up the shortfall in supply.

Pafmi said that imported corn volumes have continued to rise over the last decade, adding that the supply sufficiency gap between imported and domestic corn needs to be substantially reduced to single digits to insulate the Philippines from the adverse effects of any tight global grain supply. This will ultimately impact the Philippines' food security and leaves the country vulnerable to global supply imbalances.

Pafmi also said the local corn production for livestock feed will reach 7.56 million metric tonnes this year, of which 6.35 million metric tonnes will go to livestock feed mix, according to the National Corn Program's 2022–2023 Corn Supply Outlook. They said even in the absence of any typhoons that may affect harvest, domestic production would still be insufficient.

-      Philippine Daily Inquirer