"If the feed milling sector needs to bring in corn or feed wheat, they have to follow certain guidelines that have to be set," said Agriculture Undersecretary Segfredo R. Serrano in a press briefing.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) indicated that only corn that has been stored by a minimum of 15 days at source should be shipped to the Philippines, and all corn imports should come from outside of Southern China.

Agriculture Secretary Domingo F. Panganiban said government is also keeping its policy not to allow zero-duty corn importation.

"We shall not allow zero-duty importation. They have to use the MAV (minimum access volume slapped with 35 percent duty). It’s not true (that price is too high). It’s only their reason. Of course we have good quality corn. In the third district of Bukidnon, they have one of the best quality because they have a processing plant there," Panganiban said in an interview.

Rod Bioco, Philippine Maize Federation Inc. (PMFI) chairman, said the corn group has been asking government to impose the restrictions on corn importation on all types of feed grains – soybean and wheat too – not only corn.

"If you ban (importation from certain sources) for corn, the same concern should be raised for wheat. I don’t know if only Southern China should be banned because the whole of China is infected," he said.

Authorities fear that bird droppings during feed grain loading will infect the grains with the dreaded avian flu virus and get the virus to the domestic environment even after transport.

However, the 15-day storage requirement for corn in its origin is believed to allow for the virus’s incubation period such that early any infection can be detected prior to shipment.

Bioco admitted corn price is high locally even if it’s peak harvest in Mindanao. Feed millers claim price has gone up to P13.50 per kilo last week, and that at this price, quality is still below standard with aflatoxin level reaching to 200 parts per billion (PPB) compared to the acceptable 50 PPB.

Bioco said though that feed millers should be willing to pay the extra price for higher-quality corn if this is what they want.

"They (feed millers) are a bit ambivalent about it. They want good corn, but they have to pay extra. We can use aflatoxin binders and mold inhibitors if it has to be at 50 PPB," he said.

Last week, the feed milling sector placed orders for 24,050 metric tons (MT) of Chinese corn, 44,000 MT of Chinese wheat, and 30,000 MT of soybean and 6,000 MT of soybean meal from either US or Argentina.

Feed producers are beefing up corn and corn substitute importation as local corn production dropped to 5.3 million MT in 2005, lower than the original 5.8 million MT target which was already adjusted to 5.5 million MT. The 2005 output also declined from the 2004 production of 5.4 million MT.