August 31, 2012

 

 

After it found out that they were not complying with the agency's requirements for cold storage and warehouse facilities, Philippine Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon ordered the suspension of the accreditation of two meat importers.

 

He said he suspended the accreditation of Batoy Trading, one of the top 10 importers of fats, offal, skin/rind and other meat products, and Sacrecoure Commercial, along with 25 non-compliant importers of other commodities.

 

He said the purge of the list of importers will continue to stop unscrupulous traders from using fictitious information in their unlawful importations of meat and other agricultural products through technical smuggling.

 

"Those involved in illegal activities such as smuggling will also be blacklisted," Biazon said, adding that this should serve as a warning to unscrupulous traders and importers engaged in technical smuggling or misdeclaration of their importations.

 

Also suspended were importers of other commodities, namely: Red Hot Trading, Adken Trading, Nandy Marketing, Afidee Trading, Teimex Enterprises, Jexand Trading, Richflow Marketing, Grinderstone International Trading, Pluvial Enterprises, Sea Probe Trading, Touch Down Trading, Arrow Line Marketing, Seph Gabrielle Enterprise, One Paul Trading, Alvee Trading, Purity Indentor Commercial, SBSC Enterprises, Goldwin Manufacturing Laboratories, Bountyfields Enterprises, Bon-Sante Trading, Big C Trading, Alnaya Trading Corp., Mamugold Enterprises, Lendoza Trading, and Ashes and Diamonds Marketing.

 

Earlier, Abono chairman and Swine Development Council (SDC) director Rosendo So called on the Aquino administration to crack down on smuggling syndicates, saying that disparities in the official data of the United Nations and the Philippine government and records of the Department of Agriculture (DA) showed that more than PHP16 billion (US$379 million) worth of pork meat had been smuggled into the country last year, depriving the government billions of pesos in much-needed revenues.

 

So warned that the rampant smuggling of pork may cause the eventual collapse of the country's hog raising industry, if no serious measures are put in place to check the illegal trade.

 

In a position paper submitted to the Senate committee on Agriculture and Food, So revealed that the government was deprived of revenues from the 109,948,284 kilogrammes of pork meat worth more than PHP16.49 billion (US$390 million) (at PHP150 (US$3.55) per kilogramme) that entered the country last year, but was not reflected in the official records of the DA's Bureau of Animals Industry.

 

Citing United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database (UN Comtrade) and the BAI records, So noted that out of the 164,122,423 kilogrammes of pork meat exported by other countries into the Philippines in 2011, only 54,174,139 kilogrammes was officially recorded. Of the 109,948,284 kilogrammes of meat, the 73,743,411 kilogrammes magically became offal which the importers should have declared at a price of US$2.7 per kilogramme or PHP116 (US$2.7) per kilogramme, and not at a price of US$0.5 per kilogramme or PHP21.5 (US$0.51) per kilogramme.

 

And instead of paying a tariff of 40% or PHP46.6 (US$1.1) per kilogramme, unscrupulous traders and importers only paid a tariff of 5-10% or PHP21.5 (US$0.51) per kilogramme, which was clearly a case of technical smuggling, So lamented.

 

This anomalous importation of meat resulted in government revenue losses of PHP4.96 billion (US$117 million) last year, the SDC official stressed. "This deprives the government of the much-needed revenues and resulted to the collapse of the backyard industry where it suffered PHP28.5 billion (US$674 million) losses for the past three years since 2009," the SDC convenor disclosed.