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The government announced that for the first time, the Philippines will be exporting yellow corn and its first shipment would be for Vietnam. This was confirmed by Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, who said that the National Food Authority (NFA) already had talks with authorities in Vietnam, and they have committed to prioritize buying Philippine corn.

According to the Department of Agriculture, NFA would be buying local corn at P10 per kilo and sell it to Vietnam at P9 or P8. This is being done just to get rid of the excess corn supply. “The government is ready to export 50,000 to 150,000 metric tons (MT) of corn. This will come from Isabela, Pangasinan, Mindoro, Bukidnon and others,” said NFA Administrator Jessup Navarro.

NFA spokesperson Rex Estoperez said however that the schedule for the shipment to Vietnam has yet to be set. He said the government had to make sure that the corns to be exported are of high quality.

Corn farmers, on the other hand, are wary, while they welcome the news about the exportation of their produce to Vietnam, they are asking why the NFA would be buying them P10 per kilo when it announced in May that they will give them a support price of P13 per kilo. They also questioned why NFA would sell at a loss when, according to them, corn could sell for P14 to P15 in the international market.

“They government authorities are at least addressing the problem they created when they did not conduct proper consultations before allowing duty-free importation of feed wheat,” Philippine Maize Federation (Philmaize) president Roger Navarro said in an interview.

Due to the influx of feed wheat, which is a substitute for corn in livestock feed, corn prices fell down to as low as P4 per kilo this harvest season. The Philmaize is also urging the government to engage farmers in consultations and make good of its announcements about releasing funds for corn procurement.