The damage brought on the country’s agriculture sector by Severe Tropical Storm Maring should justify the temporary cut in corn import tariff to 5% in order to prevent the expected increase in food prices, the Philippine Association of Feed Millers Inc. (PAFMI) said Thursday.
In a statement, PAFMI said importation is the “best route to take” or the “band aid solution” to the continuously increasing cost of animal feeds in the country, which has been resulting in higher food prices.
Corn currently comprises 60% to 70% of the ingredients for the production of animal feeds, the group said.
Meanwhile, it said the cost of feeds takes up 80% of the total production cost for chicken, pork, and other livestock products.
Based on the latest report of the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (DRRMC), the damage and losses that the agriculture sector incurred from Maring already stood at P2.3 billion, affecting 79,014 farmers.
For corn, as much as 8,903 metric tons (MT) of production worth nearly P150 million was wiped out, while 8,658 hectares were damaged.
This does not yet take into account the medium to long term impact of the typhoon to corn farmers and their farms, according to PAFMI.
The group said that prices of feed corn have already increased to record highs.
Average price in September, for instance, hit P22.88 per kilogram (kg), reflecting a sharp increase from P15.30/kg in the same month last year.
Prices in the world market have also been rising due to increasing demand for food, feed, and energy purposes.
PAFMI said that Maring could result in the deficit for the said commodity and could push prices not just of corn but also animal feeds.
“There is always that concern because even without the storm, we already face an annual deficit due to several factors, including the finite land area where corn can be grown and climate change which devastates crops through drought or storms,” PAFMI said.
“At the moment, Maring was responsible for an estimated over a billion worth of damage to rice and crops. While we continue to hope for corn prices to be stable, we cannot stop the inevitable with all the calamities that come and go in our country,” it added.—Ted Cordero/AOL, GMA News
Feed millers group says Maring damage justifies need to import corn at lower tariff
Source: News Panda Philippines
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