Customs targets corn smugglers

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Customs (BOC) is training its sights on importers engaging in technical smuggling of corn into the country, commissioner Alberto Lina said yesterday.

In May, local corn growers and traders belonging to the Philippine Maize Federation (Philmaize) asked the BOC to blacklist several importers allegedly passing off corn from Argentina and Brazil as Vietnamese corn.

In a letter addressed to the then newly-installed Lina, Philmaize president Roger Navarro accused exporter Oltran Mien Nam Corp. and importers Sucre Enterprise Corp. and New Panay Agri Ventures, Inc. to be among those entities that brought into the country last year some 500,000 metric tons (MT) of corn from Argentina and Brazil.

Navarro said some 6,000 metric tons (MT) of corn brought in by the companies had been confiscated in Iloilo in December 2014; samples from the load were taken by the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) for DNA testing.

Preliminary results of the laboratory tests showed that the supposed corn from Vietnam tested positive for GMO traits, an anomaly because Vietnam does not allow the use of biotech corn.

Lina said he has not yet received the report from the DA on the origin of the supposedly smuggled corn.

Navarro claimed the issuance of a certificate of origin by Vietnam is a violation of the rules of origin.

Prior to this, Philmaize claimed other cases of technical smuggling wherein corn exports to the Philippines were made to appear to have been sourced from Thailand.