Flour imports seen going down by 10-15% this year

The country’s flour imports this year could go down by 10 to 15 percent to 1.6 to 1.7 million metric tons (MT) from 1.9 million MT in 2005.

There is a projected weaker demand for flour-based commodities such as bread and pan de sal due to the weak economy, said Ric Pinca, executive director of the Philippine Association of Flour Millers (PAFMIL).

"The ongoing upward trend of almost every commodity in the country will impact on the consumption attitude of consumers particularly on bread and other pastry products," said Pinca.

He noted that since January, there has been a decline in the bread consumption of Filipino families in the country. Based on PAFMIL’s study, creeping inflation due to the two-percent value added tax increase is muscling the purchasing power of regular wage earners.

"Filipinos have declining disposal income and so many families are forced to scrimp on their food consumption. They are prioritizing staples like rice and are cutting back on bread and other basic food items," said Pinca.

With weaker purchasing power, PAFMIL expects the downtrend in the country’s flour importations to continue. Last year, total flour importation was only 1.9 MMT, from 2.1 MMT in 2004.

While imports by PAFMIL members have been going down in recent years, Pinca noted that local flour millers are also starting to get a beating with the proliferation of cheap, imported flour as well as the unabated smuggling of substandard flour in the country.

Local flour millers reiterated their appeal for government to stop the entry of cheap substandard flour since a huge volume of these are allegedly unfit for human consumption but are being passed off as bakery flour.

PAFMIL asked the Bureau of Customs and the Department of Health to tighten the noose on what appears to be an increasing volume of bakery flour of questionable quality that is brought by traders into the country and sold to bakeries and foodshops.

Pinca said most of the volume coming in are from China and are either smuggled or brought into the local ports but are misdeclared as other commodities.

Pinca said some of the cheap flour from China include those with brands such as Camel, Elephant, and Panda.

This unabated entry is not only illegal, aside from violating the country’s Fortification Law, it is being passed off as food-grade flour when in fact it is not fit for human consumption," said Pinca.

The Fortification Law or Republic Act 8976 mandates that all flour sold commercially be fortified with vitamin A and iron.

These flours do not go through inspection and previous testing by the DOH’s Bureau of Food and Drugs show they do not contain vitamins and minerals and other fortificants required by the DOH.

"This is posing a health risk to consumers and causing the government millions in lost import duties. It is also hurting the already ailing local flour milling industry," added Pinca.

The cheap imported flour is now preferred by bakeries and foodshops because its about P20 to P50 lower than local flour. Domestically-produced flour sells at P600 and P500 for hard and soft flours, respectively.

Hard flour is used to produce pan de sal and loaf breads, while soft flour is for pastries, noodles and cakes, among others.