NFA to undertake importation of 300,000 metric tons of corn

Threatened by the looming increase in the prices of animal feeds — which could further drive the cost of meat and poultry in the country — the National Food Authority (NFA) will undertake the importation of corn since no local trader is interested to do it.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said the NFA will push through with the importation of 300,000 MT of corn for the sake of local feed millers.

This was amid the looming shortage of feeds in the country due to the unavailability of locally produced corn.

Unfortunately, this also pushed local feed millers to import way more feedwheat from other countries as a cheaper alternative to local corn.

Feedwheat is an alternative ingredient used for making animal feeds.

In an earlier report, Roger Navarro, president of Philmaize Federation Inc. (PFI), confirmed that there's now a rising feedwheat importation among feed millers, citing this as a “relief valve” option of the industry since there is a shortage of corn in the domestic market.

"[NFA] will import the same volume of 300,000 MT, depending on the needs [of the millers]," Piñol finally confirmed in a recent interview.

On an unrelated development, NFA is now optimistic it will be able to buy more palay from local farmers as the NFA Council has just approved an additional incentive of 13.00 per kilogram (kg) in the agency’s palay procurement support price of P17.00/ kg.

For 2018, the NFA targets to buy 2.6 million bags of palay. With the additional incentives, NFA Deputy Administrator Tomas Escarez, who was designated by the NFA Council as the Officer-In-Charge of the NFA, is optimistic the agency could meet this procurement target. (MBM)