Corn farmers blame government for drop in prices

MANILA, Philippines - Local corn farmers are blaming the government for “bad policy governance” that has caused domestic and international prices of Philippine-grown corn to drop.

According to the Philippine Maize Federation (Philmaize), while corn prices in the international market average $300 per metric ton, local corn are being priced as low as $135 per metric ton.

In an interview with The STAR, Philmaize president Roger Navarro revealed that corn farmers in Region II are getting as low a P6.50 per kilogram for their produce.

In Bulacan, the buying price is slightly better at P8.50/kg, while in Mindanao the buying price is at around P9/kg.

A survey of the farmgate price of corn by the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) for July this year showed that as of the fourth week of July, the farmgate price is down to P9.79/kg, 6.58 percent lower compared to last year’s farmgate price of P10.48/kg.

The production cost per kilo of corn farmers, Navarro said, stands at P10/kg.

As such, a buying price of below P10/kg, means corn farmers are not earning, and are even losing.

Navarro likewise criticized the National Food Authority (NFA) for not making good on its assurance of buying up to 300,000 metric tons of corn at the support price of P13/kg.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap had previously announced the grant of the support price upon the instruction of President Arroyo.

The announced support price, however, would only be for 20 percent of the projected harvest.

For the first crop this year, Navarro said, the corn harvest is forecast between 1.5 million meetric tons to as high as three MMT.

Navarro said the NFA has been justifying that it has ran out of funds for further corn procurement and is, thus, temporarily suspending corn support price buying.

Navarro blamed the current low prices of corn to “bad policy,” specifically citing the “damaging impact of Executive Order 675 as a very much ill-advised government policy.“

“Philmaize has always been consistent in our role to warn government to keep its balancing act in putting forward policies that will greatly affect our agriculture sector, particularly corn,” he stressed.

Government has decided to lift the tariff for feed wheat to zero early this year.

The inclusion of feed wheat in EO 675 was granted “to prevent technical smuggling,” Navarro said.

Navarro said the issuance of EO 675 is “a great manifestation of ignorance of taxation laws” and “the laxity and inconsistency of policy from the Department of Agriculture which made the ultimate recommendation without even consulting the affected corn sector.”

Philmaize argued that “as always, bad policy will make its impact at a later time, and now the time has come for mourning.”

While the peak of harvest will be between August to September this year, “farmers are already looking for ways to recoup their investments, cope and remedy the damage caused by the bad policy governance that resulted to the issuance of EO 675.”