More feed wheat imports seen this year

MANILA, Philippines - Local feed millers may buy more feed wheat from other countries this year compared to the volume bought last year if prices of local corn will not go down to normal levels and local corn supply will not be enough.

 “It (feed wheat imports) could be higher this year depending on the local prices and availability of corn,” Philippine Association of Feed Millers, Inc. (PAFMI) president Norman Ramos said in a telephone interview yesterday.

The group, he said, bought 1.2 million metric tons (MT) of feed wheat from other countries last year.

For this year, he said, the PAFMI has yet to set the volume of feed wheat imports.

He noted though that for the January to March period, some 520,000 MT of feed wheat imports have arrived in the country.

Feed wheat and yellow corn are ingredients of livestock feeds.

Ramos said the price of local corn has risen to as high as P19 per kilogram (kg) earlier this year.

While the prices of local corn are now down to P13.80 to P14 per kg, he said, these are still higher than the P13 per kg price of corn in the past years.

He also said that as the supply of local corn is not seen to be a problem, local prices must go down.

“I think the supply is there. Given that there is harvest, we do not see lower prices being manifested,” he said.

The Agriculture department has yet to release data on corn output for the first quarter.

The Bureau of Agricultural Statistics expects production of yellow corn to reach 1.472 million MT in the first quarter, six percent higher than the output in the same period last year.

The PAFMI, Ramos said, is continuously monitoring the prices of local corn as well as prices of corn produced by other countries in the region and feed wheat prices overseas.

He said the group intends to find an alternative to local corn should prices remain higher than P13 per kg.

“Our objective is to ensure feed costs are low. If the opportunity to import cheaper corn or feed wheat is there, we will bring them in,” he said.