Palace hikes corn support price to P13

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang has approved a P13 per kilo support price for yellow corn then ordered the National Food Authority (NFA) to purchase 300,000 metric tons of corn this main harvest season to encourage corn farmers to increase their production.

This was announced yesterday by Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap at the sidelines of the 28th anniversary of the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp., (PCIC) at the Club Filipino in Greenhills.

Malacanang’s move to increase the government’s support price for yellow corn comes amid complaints from local corn growers that the buying price for yellow corn has dropped to a low P7-P8 per kilo (farm gate) as some feedmillers have shifted from using corn to the currently cheaper zero-duty feedwheat.

Corn is normally the main ingredient in animal feeds, while feed wheat is a substitute or alternative feed ingredient.

According to Philippine Maize Federation (Philmaize) president  Roger Navarro, the prevailing P7- P8 yellow corn buying price is below the P10.50 production cost of corn farmers.

Navarro, blamed the drop in prevailing corn buying prices to an earlier decision by the government to temporarily remove the tariff on feedwheat upon the request of the flour industry.

Unfortunately, while the temporary removal of the tariff duty on feedwheat was supposed to offer relief to the flour industry  and subsequently to bread manufacturers, feed-grade feedwheat was also covered by the temporary removal of tariff duties.

Navarro reiterated the corn sector’s complaint that the decision was made without first consulting the corn sector which was opposed to the tariff removal.

The temporary tariff removal was effected January this year and is supposed to end this June. There is a request from feedmillers and some end users such as the poultry and hog sectors to extend the duty-free importation of feedwheat.–Marianne V. Go, Philippine Star