News
28.10.2009
Philippine feedmillers buy Ukrainian feed wheat
A GROUP of Philippine feed-millers bought a total of 133,000 metric tons of feedwheat, mostly from the Ukraine, at $210 per MT, cost and freight, an industry official said on Monday.
The first shipment of 41,000 MT is scheduled to be delivered November- December, the next 46,000 MT in December-January, and the remaining 46,000 MT in January-February, Ricardo M. Pinca, executive director of the Philippine Association of Flour Millers (Pafmil), told reporters.
"They were contracted last week," Mr. Pinca said, adding that the entire volume could increase to 150,000 MT, consisting of 50,000 MT per shipment.
Sought for comment, the leader of a group of producers of corn, which like feedwheat is a raw material for animal feeds, said that while the upcoming importation could put members of his group at a disadvantage when dealing with traders, the recent purchase is still better a flood of duty- free feedwheat.
Corn producers are still smarting from the impact of Executive Order 765, which lifted the 7% tariff on feedwheat last January-June 21. The resulting flood of about 1.1 million MT of duty-free feedwheat, stretched the country's yellow corn supply to be sufficient to as late as the second quarter of 2010. It also forced yellow corn prices to drop to P4-P6 per kilo in May from P20/kg in January. Prices have since stabilized at P10.50/kg.
"Naturally, the reaction of traders is to buy corn at a lower price from current prices, because of that [Pafmil] announcement," Roger V. Navarro, president of the Philippine Maize Federation Inc., said in a phone interview. "They [feedmillers] can import raw materials as long as it is not tariff-free."
BusinessWorld
