Officials from the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Customs on Thursday inspected smuggled sugar from Thailand, brought in by a multi-purpose cooperative, following the directive of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to intensify the crackdown on agricultural smuggling to protect farmers and consumers, and ensure a fair market for business.
“We cannot let these illicit trading practices undermine the agriculture sector and hurt our farmers, particularly those in the sugar industry,” said Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr. “I congratulate the BOC for a job well done for this.”
The DA chief joined Bureau of Customs commissioner Bienvenido Rubio and Sugar Regulatory Administration chief executive officer and administrator Pablo Azcona in the inspection of the smuggled sugar that arrived in the port of Manila late April.
Seized were four container vans loaded with a total 2,000 50-kilo bags of refined sugar, with an estimated retail value of P9 million. The shipment, which arrived on 29 April at the Port of Manila from the port of Thailand, involved two container vans of refined sugar imported by Roxas City-based Lapaz Multi-purpose Cooperative (LMC) without any permit or import allocation from the SRA.
LMC also doesn’t possess a clearance to release imported sugar. The two other container vans, which arrived in January from Vietnam, also contain refined sugar—as tests by the SRA showed—but declared as sweetener mix, which has a lower tariff. If the cargo was allowed through customs, the government would have been deprived of P1.8 million in import tax.
The cargo has been declared abandoned by the consignee on record, Yabai OPC. “The closer coordination among government agencies to clamp down on smuggling as well as the implementation of the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Law which doesn’t allow bail should put fear on these illicit traders,” said Secretary Tiu Laurel.
The DA chief instructed the SRA to blacklist LMC and Yobai since they are registered sugar traders and importers. Aside from refined sugar, the BOC also confiscated smuggled cigarettes that could undermine the income of tobacco farmers.
The DA, through its Inspectorate and Enforcement office, last year seized P2.83 billion worth of smuggled farm goods, around P1 billion higher compared to the level in 2023. From January through 19 May this year, DA-IE already seized and condemned smuggled farm goods worth a total P407.6 million.
