Biazon suspends 2 meat importers

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has suspended the accreditation of two meat importers for failing to comply with its requirements for cold storage and warehouse facilities.

Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon 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.

Biazon stressed the cleansing of the list of meat and agricultural product importers will continue.

“Those involved in illegal activities such as smuggling will also be blacklisted,” Biazon told reporters in Manila.

The BOC chief said his order should serve as a warning to unscrupulous traders and importers engaged in technical smuggling or misdeclaration of their importations.

Earlier, Abono chairman and Swine Development Council director Rosendo So called on the Aquino administration to crack down on smuggling syndicates, citing that disparities in the official data of the United Nations and the Philippine government and records of the Department of Agriculture showed that more than P16 billion worth 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 pork smuggling may cause the eventual collapse of the country’s hog raising industry, if no serious measures are put in place to check rampant pork smuggling.

Pork into offal

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 kilos of pork meat worth more than P16.49 billion (at P150 per kilo) that entered the country last year, but did not reflect in the official records of the DA’s Bureau of Animals Industry (BAI).

Citing United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database (UN Comtrade) and the BAI records, So noted that out of the 164,122,423 kilos of pork meat exported by other countries into the Philippines in 2011, only 54,174,139 kilos was officially recorded entering the country.

Of the 109,948,284 kilos of meat, the 73,743,411 kilos was registered as offal. So said the importers should have declared the meat at $2.7 or P116 per kilo, but unscrupulous importers only declared it at a price of $0.5 or P21.5 per kilo.

And instead of paying a tariff of 40 percent or P46.6 per kilo, unscrupulous traders and importers only pay a tariff of five percent to 10 percent or P21.5 per kilo, which is clearly a case of technical smuggling, So said.