Manila eyes corn export to Seoul

MANILA, Philippines Manila is expected to export corn to South Korea following Seoul’s move to approve the quality of corn of Filipino farmers. Agriculture Assistant Secretary Dennis Araullo on Thursday told reporters that the Korea Overseas Grains Investment Co. Ltd. has sent a letter to the National Agribusiness Corp. (Nabcor), an attached corporation of the DA, informing the agency that the Philippine corn has passed the quality protocol of the Korean quarantine agency. South Korea annually imports 300,00 metric tons of corn. “If the price is attractive, more farmers will plant. We presume that would be more than enough incentive for farmers to plant more. It’s…likely the farmers will start planting by early November to December due to this export negotiations," Araullo said. He added that the impact of this planting will be seen in the 2009 stocks. Local corn farmers had earlier complained of the national government’s lack of assistance to the industry. Roger Navarro, PhilippineMaize Federation president, said his group will pursue relentlessly the petition to further increase the government buying price for corn to P13 per kilo. Last week the National Food Authority Board approved a P1.50 hike in the buying or support price for corn to P11.50 from P10 in August. Before the adjustments, the support price for corn was P7.50 a kilo. The NFA Board revealed that it is studying the possibility of raising the support price for yellow corn to P13 per kilo. Estimates from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics showed that corn output for the second semester may reach 3.2 million MT. The government is seeking to boost corn output to 4.11 million MT. “This is just a forecast. We are conducting some production interventions measures that will help the government realize its target output for the year," Araullo had said earlier. GMANews.TV