Less animal feed in the Philippines
Animal feed production in the Philippines is expected to drop 7.7 percent this year to 6.0 million metric tons due to weaker demand, a former official of Philippine Association of Feed Millers Inc. said.
Last year, animal feed production was 6.5 million tons, down from 7.0 million
tons, former association vice president Ric Pinca said. Pinca told reporters
that demand drop was due largely to increasing cost of feed inputs, such as
soybean meal and coconut oil.
“The lower demand for feeds may also be due
to increasing prices of meat and poultry, which have softened the consumer
demand for these products,” Pinca said.
He added that animal diseases
were also a direct factor in the drop in demand for feeds. Last year, a spate of
diseases wiped out about 20 percent of backyard pig farms, he said.
The
weaker demand for feed made the feed millers association ask for removal of
tariffs on feed inputs, particularly soybeans, soybean meal, DDGS and tapioca
residue pellets. Soybeans are subject to a tariff of 1.0 percent, soybean meal
to 3.0 percent, DDGS to 3.0 percent, and tapioca to 35 percent.
