The Philippine Association of Feed Millers said Tuesday its members are buying more local corn as reports of bumper crop from the ongoing harvest season.
PAFMI said the bumper harvest boosted the feed millers’ confidence in the availability of yellow corn which takes up over 50 percent of the local feed formulation.
PAFMI president Nicole Sarmiento Garcia said the association aimed to fuel the domestic economy by producing locally and buying feed inputs from Filipino farmers.
Garcia also encouraged other feed millers and manufacturers to purchase inputs from local producers and asked consumers to buy and eat locally produced food and farm items.
Roger Navarro, president of Philippine Maize Federation Inc., the association of local corn farmers, confirmed the reports of good harvest during a meeting hosted by the Department of Agriculture. No data were available yet on this year’s crop output, but last year’s production reached 5.9 million metric tons.
The Department of Agriculture encouraged local government units to assist corn farmers in selling their produce either by linking the farmers to direct buyers like the feed millers or brokering the purchase deals.
One of the LGUs actively pursuing DA’s initiative is the province of Isabela with Governor Rodolfo Albano directly offering corn to the feed millers delivered to Bulacan and Batangas.
Another DA initiative is a corn contract growing project between PAFMI and corn farmers where PAFMI guarantees a market for the local produce and the DA provides technical assistance through local agriculturists. A memorandum of agreement is being worked out to implement the scheme, according to Garcia.
Yellow corn is the preferred energy source in the animal feed formulation and no other grain material could equal its energy-giving characteristics. Farmers normally have two cropping seasons and harvest corn during the months of September and October and January and February.
PAFMI is the largest association of feed producers in the country with 34 members and producing 70 percent of the country’s feed output.
Hog feeds comprise the bulk of the animal feeds production with 60 percent share of total output. Poultry feeds take 30 percent, while aquafeeds and special feeds (dog food, fighting cock feeds, others) account for the rest.
Corn is one of the world’s most traded agricultural commodity, next only to soybeans. Corn traded worldwide last year reached $34.9 billion, posting an average growth of 21 percent since 2015 when world corn trade was valued at only $28.7B.
The world’s five largest corn exporters in 2019 were the United States, $12.9 billion (38.1 percent of total exports); Argentina, $4.2 billion (12.5 percent); Brazil, $4.1 billion (12.1 percent); Ukraine, $3.5 billion (10.3 percent); and France, $1.7 billion (5 percent).
