Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. yesterday led the inspection of 19 container vans at the Manila South Harbor loaded with frozen fish but were declared by importers as processed plant-based commodities.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) said in a statement on Monday a spot check was conducted with the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) on two of the container vans that contained boxes of frozen mackerel and galunggong.
The DA said the shipment was declared to contain frozen fried taro sticks, sweet potato balls and assorted food products from China.
The assessed value of the inspected 40-foot container shipments based on BOC data is at P202 million, the DA added.
Gerald Glenn Panganiban, BPI director, said his agency previously alerted the BOC about the shipments which were declared to contain 550 metric tons of frozen fried taro sticks, sweet potato balls and various frozen food items.
The two 40-foot container vans that were spot checked on Monday arrived on January 21 and are consigned to Straradava Household Products Co. Ltd., Panganiban said.
The remaining 17 suspected, yet-to-be-inspected container vans were consigned to Fendee Consumer Goods Trading, which shares a similar address with Straradava in Bindono, Manila, Panganiban added.
The DA said importation of fish and marine products is regulated by the DA’s Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.
In a separate statement on Monday, the BOC said the container vans from China were put on hold after receiving a request for an intrusive and non-intrusive examination from the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service, following the same request from the BPI’s Plant Quarantine Service due to pending compliance with requirements.
The agency said an alert order was then issued by the Office of the District Collector against the subject shipment to prompt further investigation that was conducted on February 18 and 19, before the issuance of a warrant of seizure and detention for violation of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act.
