By Janina C. Lim, Reporter
A GROUP of corn stakeholders is expecting the country to import half a million metric tons of the grain this year as farmers have refused to plant the crop amid low market prices.
Nagimport tayo ng corn this summer from Indonesia. Marami [There have been corn imports this summer from Indonesia. It was a lot],” Roger V. Navarro, president of Philmaize Federation Inc., said in a phone interview on Friday, noting that shipments have been arriving since January.
Siguro aabot na yan ng [It might reach] 500,000 MT,” Mr. Navarro added, referring to projections for the rest of the year. This is more than double the estimated 200,000 shipped in last year.
Mr. Navarro said some farmers did not plant corn this crop year due to depressed market prices which Mhe attributed to the robust stocks of feed wheat, a cheaper alternative to livestock feeds.
“Last year, surplus tayo tapos naghahanap tayo ng merkado. Marami nagsasabi na kukunin, pero wala din kasi marami din import ng feed wheat [Last year, we had a surplus so we we’re looking for a market. Many said they will buy but that did not happen because there has been much importation of feed wheat],” Mr. Navarro said.
He said about 2.5 million MT of feed wheat were imported last year, higher than the average 1 to 2 million MT the country used to import annually.
As such, inventories ran out of space for local corn and was filled instead by the cheaper feed wheat.
PhilMaize will continue monitoring the market through the harvest period of July to August to see whether more feed wheat will be shipped in.
Kung babagsak ang presyo, kaunti na naman magtatanim [If prices fall, only a few again would plant],” he added.
During the first three months of the year, corn production stood at 2.476 million MT, up 4.66% from the 2.366 million MT in the first quarter last year.
Corn production in 2017 stood at 1.629 million MT, down from 1.728 million MT.