MANILA - The Philippines is planning to export up to 150,000 tons of yellow corn this year to trim excess supply and is looking to sell an initial 10,000 to 20,000 tons next month, a senior government official said on Wednesday.

The Southeast Asian nation is exporting the grain for the first time ever to cut an anticipated surplus, following hefty imports of feed wheat earlier this year.

Yellow corn and feed wheat are used alternatively for animal feed.

"The bidding for the initial 10,000 to 20,000 tons may be done in the first to second week of October," Romeo Jimenez, director for marketing operations at state-run National Food Authority, told Reuters in a phone interview.