By Othel V. Campos

The National Food Authority will bid out a contract to import 80,000 metric tons of corn on May 17, completing the total shipments of 200,000 mt required to fill in a supply shortage for the year.

NFA Deputy Administrator Ludivico Jarina told Manila Standard Today that the government would push through with the last batch of corn imports before June to meet a critical supply gap. The main corn harvest is expected starting on July yet.

Only about 120,000 mt of corn imports of the total 200,000 mt were subscribed during a bidding on April 11 at the NFA office in Quezon City.

Toepfer bagged the contract to import 60,000 mt while Cargill won the balance. Other qualified bidders were Bunge, Romar Commodities, Louis Dreyfuss and Paritas.

Toepfer and Cargill, both trading companies, plan to obtain the corn supply from an Argentine source.

The Department of Agriculture has allowed up to 400,000 mt of corn imports this year in two separate tranches of 200,000 mt each based on reports of a production of shortfall of 1.8 million mt this year.

The government has committed to shoulder the import duties to make domestic corn prices competitive.

The feed milling sector has estimated that yellow corn production this year will reach 3.88 million tons, or around 60 percent of total corn output, against the feeds requirement of about 5.11 mt.

With post-harvest losses of around 15 percent, the available yellow corn for feeds will reach around 3.3 million mt, or a shortfall of 1.8 million mt, said Ric Pinca, executive director of Philippine Association of Flour Millers Inc.