Philippine soyameal imports are likely to fall 20 percent to below 1.3 million tonnes in 2008, as higher global prices and disease-thinned animal flocks blunt demand, a senior industry official said on Thursday. The Philippines imports the bulk of its soyameal requirements from Latin America and India.
"In 2007, our soyameal imports were 1.6 million tonnes. And in 2008, it should be less than 1.3 million tonnes because feed demand has come down," said Ric Pinca, vice president at the Philippine Association of Feedmillers Inc. "Global prices are higher. As a result, meat consumption has fallen." He added, "This is a significant drop after consistently higher imports for many years."
The country, which is unlikely to import corn this year, is expected to see a decline of 20 percent in total animal feed production to 8 million tonnes in 2008, Pinca told Reuters on the sidelines of a grains conference in Cambodia. "The hog-raising business is the one driving our consumption of feed. This year it is down because of the swine flu that hit us late last year," he said in an interview. "It will take some time, we hope it recovers by next year."
The Philippines imports corn to bridge a gap in local supply, mainly for animal feed. There has been no request for imports so far this year due to high international prices.
The country, which accounts for just 1 percent of world corn output of about 700 million tonnes, had planned to import 400,000 tonnes of corn last year, but only shipped in 130,000 tonnes.
Pinca, who also heads the Philippine Association of Flour Millers, said the nation's wheat imports were forecast to fall to 1.8 million tonnes from 1.9 million, hurt by cheap imports of wheat flour from China and other origins. "We are seeing dwindling import numbers generally because the prices have become higher and there is the entry of smuggled flour coming into the country." The Philippines, which imports all of its wheat requirements, bought 110,000 of wheat flour in 2007 from China, most of it under-valued.
"Even today China is offering $325 when the price is over $500 per tonne in the local market," Pinca said. "All this is smuggling and causing difficulty for the domestic industry."
Smugglers brought flour into the Philippines, declaring it to be some other commodity, such as soyameal, the official said. "It is very difficult to monitor, but you can see it in the market, you can see it the bakeries." Pinca is attending a meeting of US grain exporters and Asian buyers in the Cambodian city of Siem Reap hosted by the American Soyabean Association, the US Grains Council and US Wheat Associates.