THE Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) said “unjustified” underutilization by traders of their approved sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance (SPS-IC) for milled rice is an “anomalous” activity that may disrupt state food sufficiency planning.
The BPI, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA), told the BusinessMirror that the new requirements for securing SPS-IC would “avoid under supply for consumption of the Filipinos and buffer stocking purposes.”
“Underutilization of approved SPS-ICs without proper justification is a kind of anomalous activity which can disrupt government planning for food sufficiency,” BPI National Plant Quarantine Services Division (NPQSD) said in an e-mail interview.
“The new requirements will assure that applied SPS-ICs will be arriving within the specified period, and together with the local harvest, avoid undersupply for consumption of the Filipinos and buffer stocking purposes,” it added.
The BusinessMirror earlier reported that rice traders and importers who have unused sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance could be suspended by the DA as about 60 percent of issued SPS-ICs in the first half, covering almost 2 million metric tons (MMT), remained unutilized as of July 10.
BPI data obtained and analyzed by the BusinessMirror showed that only 1,803 SPS-ICs of the 3,926 SPS-ICs issued from January to June have been used by eligible rice importers as of July 10.
This corresponds to a total rice volume imported of about 1.347 MMT out of the 3.261 MMT applied volume during the six-month period, BPI data showed.
About 2,123 SPS-ICs, which cover 1.914 MMT of rice, are yet to be used by registered and eligible traders, importers, firms, cooperatives, and organizations, based on BPI data.
Citing importers’ explanations, BPI-NPQSD said the underutilization of the SPS-ICs this year was attributed to such reasons as the lockdowns in countries of origin due to Covid-19 pandemic and export ban in Vietnam.
Other reasons given by rice importers were: delayed shipments, rice suppliers limiting their export to ensure supply for their own needs, port congestion and holidays at country of origins and high price of imported rice than locallyproduced staple, according to BPI-NPQSD.
Dar’s reminder
Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar earlier issued a memorandum order (MO) reminding importers that “low utilization” of SPS-ICs could be “grounds for rejection of application or their suspension as importer.” “Importers should regularly account and surrender any unused SPS-ICs to BPI,” Dar said in his MO No. 30 dated June 4 but made public on July 6.
“They are reminded that low utilization of applied SPS-IC can affect their track record and can be grounds for rejection of application or their suspension,” Dar added.
Dar issued the new order to address the “problem of low utilization” of SPS-IC for milled rice and “ensure availability of food” during this Covid-19 pandemic.
The new order required rice importers to submit additional requirements for the application of SPS-IC: 1) payment of certification of the consignment and 2) list of distribution points/warehouse of the said consignment.
“This will enable BPI and other government agencies to conduct monitoring and inventory at declared warehouses,” the BPI-NPQSD said.
Furthermore, BPI-NPQSD said importers who have abandoned rice shipments and could not explain why they were abandoned have been delisted.
“There were reports of abandoned shipments from different ports. We requested an explanation from importers regarding their abandonment. Since no reply was received from their part, they were automatically removed from the list of registered importers,” it said.
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