Smuggled agri products worth P101M destroyed in Pampanga

Bureau of Customs Port of Subic officials supervise the opening of the 14 units of container vans loaded with smuggled agricultural products before their destruction on March 31 at a waste disposal facility in Porac, Pampanga. | PHOTO: Jun A. Malig

PORAC, Pampanga––At least P101.1 million worth of vegetables and seafood products from China were destroyed Thursday at a waste disposal facility in this town.

The Bureau of Customs (BoC) Port of Subic seized the smuggled agricultural products, including onions and carrots, and seafood products, such as fish, in the last quarter of last year.

The products were finally destroyed at the Greenleaf 88 Non-Hazardous Waste Disposal facility after the BoC Port of Subic obtained a go-signal from the agency’s main office in Manila.

In an interview, BoC District Collector Maritess Martin said the Port of Subic had been vigilant in monitoring the entry of smuggled and prohibited products into the country.

The seized agricultural products were inside 14 units of 40-footer container vans.

Martin said the products were consigned to Zhenpin Consumer Goods Trading, Gingarion Agri Trading, and Schnell Wert OPC.

She said the container vans were seized for misdeclaration of their contents in violation of administrative orders and circulars of the Department of Agriculture and the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act.

Some of the seized products were destroyed through rendering, shredding, and thermal decomposition at the waste disposal facility here, while the decomposing onions and carrots will be sent to a landfill facility in nearby Tarlac province.

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