Philippines seen to import more corn

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is projected to boost its importation of corn in a bid to balance supply and demand, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said.

In a report by its Foreign Agricultural Service, the USDA said it is revising upward its corn imports forecast for the Philippines to 1.2 million metric tons (MT) for 2021 to 2022, which started in July.

The 1.2 million MT projection is more than double its earlier forecast of 500,000 MT. It is also higher than the 626,000 MT imports in the previous year.

“However, considering the current market access arrangements in place to source imported corn, if the Philippines is unable to secure an otherwise unprecedented volume from within ASEAN, feed mills are expected to continue falling back by attempting to further replace corn in their rations with feed wheat,”the USDA said.

In contrast, the USDA said it is lowering its corn production forecast for the market year to 7.5 million MT from 7.8 million MT, following a troubled start to the year. This is also lower than the 8.35 million MT produced in the previous market year.

Corn area harvested projection is also lowered to 2.45 million hectares from 2.5 million hectares.

Total corn production declined by 18.6 percent in the first quarter to 2.3 million MT.  Yellow corn accounted for the vast majority of the collapse.

“While yields declined to 2.83 MT/HA, below both last year’s first quarter (3.07 MT/HA) and the historical first quarter average (2.92 MT/HA), harvested area was down by 12 percent and coincided with reports of farmers shifting to high-value alternatives,”the USDA said.

Several industry players  painted a similarly bleak outlook for the second quarter, though record high prices should signal to farmers an opportunity to expand their area during the dry season.

Meanwhile, total consumption of corn is revised upward to 8.8 million MT from the earlier 8.4 million MT projection.

The forecast, however, is still lower than the 8.9 million MT consumption a year ago.

The USDA raised its feed and residual consumption to 6.7 million MT from its earlier 6.4 million MT projection.

Food seed and industrial (FSI) consumption was also projected to increase to 2.1 million MT from the earlier projection of two million MT.