PH corn farmers find opportunity in US drought

MANILA, Philippines – The drought in the United States that has driven international corn prices in the past few months has made exporting more attractive to corn farmers in the Philippines.

In an interview, Roger Navarro, president of the Philippine Maize Federation, Inc. (Philmaize), said corn farmers want to export as much as 400,000 metric tons (MT) of yellow corn by yearend 2012.

“Because of the major damage caused by the drought in the United States, corn prices shot up in the world market. Corn is now more expensive at $8.20 per bushel,” Navarro said.

Navarro said the markets they want to export yellow corn to are Asian countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam, South Korea, and Taiwan.

Roderico R. Bioco, chairman emeritus of Philmaize added that Vietnam and China coud also be possible markets for Philippine corn.

Exporting corn, not allowed?

National Food Authority (NFA) Administrator Angelito Banayo said that under Presidential Decree (PD) No. 4, corn farmers cannot export unless the NFA council certifies there’s a surplus since corn is considered as the country’s second staple.

However, to study the proposal of corn farmers, Banayo said the NFA council has recently formed a technical working group.

The technical working group consists of government officials and representatives from the private sector. – Rappler.com