Three stores in Carmen Planas Street, Tondo, Manila were targeted by the Bureau of Customs for selling allegedly smuggled imported vegetables.
Boxes of carrots, broccoli, and other vegetables such as garlic, onion, and ginger were found in the stores where the pretended buyer bought.
It was determined that imported vegetables looked different from local vegetables.
Just like carrots from China that are smoother compared to those from Benguet.
The value of the confiscated imported vegetables reached 4.7 million pesos.
When the stall owners searched for the relevant documents such as import permits and tax payment on imported products, they could not present anything to the authorities.
The Department of Agriculture has warned the public against buying imported vegetables that can be harmful to health because their pesticide and formalin content is not specific.
No import permit is issued for smuggled imported vegetables to be sold in the market.
According to the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG), local farmers suffer from increased imported vegetables.
“Nahihirapan ‘yung mga magsasaka mag-compete kasi sila di naman sila naglalagay ng mga preservatives, madaling masira, ‘yun ang problema,” said rosendo So.
(It is difficult for farmers to compete because they do not apply preservatives, they are easily damaged, that is the problem.)
According to the Department of Agriculture (DA), they have not issued import permits or sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances (SPS-IC) to import vegetables to be sold in the market.
P4.7-M worth of smuggled imported vegetables seized in Tondo
The only permit is the importation for hotels and restaurants.
The DA is already investigating the imported vegetables with the Bureau of Plant Industry, specifically its pesticide and formalin content.
The smuggled vegetables in the market were immediately confiscated.
The DA is already cooperating with the Bureau of Customs (BOC) in apprehending the smugglers. The BOC suspects that the imported vegetables go through backdoors or so-called “open sea smuggling.”
Aside from vegetables, rice farmers also complained of the low price of palay in the provinces.
According to the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (sinag) monitoring, the new rice harvest in region 1 is P14 per kilo, P13.50 per kilo in region 2, and P10 per kilo in Mindoro.
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