RP: Typhoon destroyed 180,000 tons of corn

RP: Typhoon destroyed 180,000 tons of corn

MANILA (Reuters): The Philippines said on Friday it lost about 180,000 tons of corn in the wake of Typhoon Utor, a volume equivalent to nearly a quarter of the country's annual demand shortfall.

The country's average annual corn shortfall is between 800,000 and one million tons. Feed mills, hog and poultry farmers fill the gap by buying imported corn and other substitutes, including feed wheat.

"Because of the extent of destruction, we anticipate a greater shortage of the commodity for the rest of the year," Ric Pinca, vice president at the Philippine Association of Feedmillers Inc, told Reuters by phone.

However, agricultural officials said they expected just minimal impact on rice supplies in the country because stocks were ample. There is time for replanting before the main harvest in the fourth quarter, they said.

Typhoon Utor, one of the most powerful storms to hit the Philippines in years, battered the main island of Luzon on Wednesday with winds gusting up to 170 km per hour (106 mph) before it moved into the South China Sea early on Thursday.

Utor, which killed 72 people in landslides and freak electrocutions and injured 116, left a trail of destruction in the corn and rice lands of Luzon, the Department of Agriculture said in a report.

The storm battered southern China on Friday.

The Philippines' Department of Agriculture estimated the typhoon caused 641.96 million pesos (US$12.14 million) of damage to agriculture, including 489 million pesos of corn damage.

"The (most) damaged crop is corn," Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor told a radio interview.

The department said the typhoon affected 131,444 hectares of corn land, with an estimated production loss of 179,911 tons.

However, the department said it was still assessing the extent of the damage and whether some of the corn harvests in areas swamped by rains can still be salvaged.

"Corn production in Isabela and Cagayan (provinces) is heavily reduced. The standing corn in these two provinces are in its most vulnerable phases, reproductive and maturity stages," Agriculture Assistant Secretary for operations Edmund Sana said in a report.

The Philippines harvests 35 to 40 percent of its annual corn production in the third quarter, government officials said. Trade sources said corn output in the Cagayan Valley region, which includes the provinces of Cagayan and Isabela on the northern tip of Luzon accounted for about one fifth of the annual output. The area bore the brunt of the typhoon.

Utor avoided the southern Mindanao region, which accounts for 60 to 65 percent of total annual production.

At the start of 2001, the Department of Agriculture permitted local feedmillers, hog and poultry firms to import around 183,000 tons of corn.

Grain traders said around 150,000 tons, or more than 80 percent, of the corn import allocated has been put under contract.

Local feedmillers, who are already seeking government approval to import an additional 150,000 tons of corn later this year, said the annual shortfall may widen following the typhoon.