Group raises red flag on flour imports from Turkey

MANILA, Philippines - Turkish flour—which either have been reportedly misdeclared and/or smuggled—have begun to flood the market after the government allowed entry of five container vans filled with the commodity. The said shipment was not the first time the customs bureau allowed entry of reportedly misdeclared flour, a group of local flour millers said, adding that the recent shipment was only levied an import duty of only $280 per metric ton. However, the most rampant cases of alleged smuggled and/or misdeclared flour imports came from China which is levied $320 per metric ton, said Ric Pinca, executive director of the Philippine Association of Flour Millers Inc. (PAFMI). Pinca added that most of these shipments are distributed mostly in the Visayas and Mindanao. However, the PAFMI’s biggest worry the market presence of unlabelled flour from China. While it could be fit for human consumption, the shipment could also be for industrial uses. “We have been alerting the Bureau of Customs not to allow the release of these flour carrying only Chinese characters because these could place consumers at great risk," Pinca said. He cited a monitored shipment of 10 twenty-foot metal containers which arrived in Ozamiz City. Declared as starch—used for the production of glue—the shipment was later released. The trade department earlier arrested a Cagayan Valley-based trader which kept some 950 bag of flour considered unfit for human consumption by the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD). Besides blaming the bureau’s lax inspections, Pinca said raised the possibility of an “obvious alliance between unscrupulous importers, traders, and customs officials in various forms." “The industry has been calling the attention of the BOC almost every week over the rampant shipments of Chinese flour, but BOC officials seemed unmindful of the problem," he added. - GMANews.TV