DA asks Australia to review ban on RP goods

The Department of Agriculture (DA) will ask the Australian government to reconsider its recent ban on the entry of food and non-food products coming from all ports of the Philippines except Manila.

The prohibition stemmed from the alleged presence of giant African snails (GAS) in container vans that reached Australia’s ports in late July this year.

"We will be asking Australian quarantine authorities to review its order because it is too unfair," said Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr., adding that it wasn’t even established that the GAS found in container vans coming from the Philippines really originated from the country.

A source from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) said an investigation needs to be conducted to determine if the GAS were already in the vans before these were transported to Australia.

While the inquiry has yet to take place, the same source said BFAR Director Malcolm Sarmiento has ordered the creation of a committee that will look into the reported infestation of GAS and to come up with measures to prevent the incident from being repeated.

With the ban still in place, Cebu’s furniture exporters, are starting to worry. Last month, about $6-million worth of products, including processed seaweeds, were barred from entering Australia because of the new import restrictions imposed by the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS).

AQIS recently included the Philippines in its list of "high-risk" GAS countries which require mandatory inspection before containers are released to prevent transporting the voracious snails which are considered as an agricultural pest.

Australian quarantine authorities have imposed more rigid inspection rules because of several reported incidence of the presence of GAS in container vans reaching its ports, but reports are unclear if all of these were found in containers coming from the Philippines.