Manila rejects more corn imports at low tariff

The Philippines has rejected the appeal of local feedmills for an additional 120,000 tonnes of corn imports at lower tariffs as supply is likely to ease with the start of the harvest this month, officials said on Thursday.
"It's harvest time so there is enough supply," Agriculture Under-secretary Segfredo Serene told a news conference, adding the main corn crop will come in this month and next month.
In May, Philippine Feedmilers asked the government to allow the additional import of 120,000 tonnes of yellow corn at a tariff of 35 percent on top of the 216,940 tonnes quota given to them and other poultry and livestock firms for the year.
Corn imports outside of the quota, known as the minimum access volume, are required to pay an import tariff of 50 percent.
Of the 216,940 tonnes of corn import quota given to private firms this year, some 144,996 tonnes have been brought into the country till June 15, according to data from the Department of Agriculture.
However, data from the Philippine Association of Feedmilers Inc showed the country imported 258,296 tonnes of corn for animal feed in the first half of the year or more than four times the volume bought for the whole of 2005. The data from the association included corn imports bought at the minimum tariff of 35 percent and the maximum of 50 percent.
Industry officials and traders attributed the surge in imports this year to floods and incessant rains from December to March, which damaged corn farms.
The association said that of 258,296 tonnes bought in the first half, 156,906 tonnes came from Argentina, 58,674 tonnes from China and 42,716 tonnes from the United States.
Imports of feed wheat, which is used as a substitute of corn, that either arrived or booked for shipment from January to July reached 572,163 tonnes, or nearly equal the total imports of 593,000 tonnes for the whole of last year.
The bulk of the imports came from Brazil at 226,189 tonnes, followed by Canada with 138,000 tonnes, China with 123,025 tonnes and Ukraine with 84,949 tonnes.