First PH agricultural import inspection hub rising in Bulacan

ANGAT, Bulacan—The Philippines’ first border inspection facility located in this province will be completed in less than a year, bolstering the country’s ability to fight smuggling and animal diseases.

The government and the private sector partnered to establish a cold examination facility in agriculture (Cefa) in this part of Bulacan, a first of its kind in the country.

This facility, situated in a 10-hectare property, will house an inspection area as well as state-of-the-art testing laboratories and an incinerator to examine all imported animals, fish, plants and other commodities.

The project will funded by the P2.3-billion allotment made by the government this year for the development of such facilities.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) and Pacific Roadlink Logistics Inc. (PRLI) signed a memorandum of agreement on Thursday to establish Cefa.

Based on the accord, PRLI will contribute the resources and a suitable property for the first border facility. PRLI will build the inspection area while the DA will develop the laboratories for the inspection of agricultural products with perceived risk.

“We expect the construction to commence immediately,” said Bureau of Animal Industry Director Paul Limson in a media briefing, adding the construction would be concluded in six to eight months.

Particularly, the Cefa will thoroughly check all imported agricultural products depending on risk level, such as those coming from banned countries with existing disease/pest outbreaks, unaccredited/unregistered agricultural imports, misdeclared or smuggled agricultural goods, as well as those involved with suspected agricultural regulatory violations and other food items that are deemed high-risk.

Scalable design

“The involvement of PRLI is to provide a facility for the government because the primary issue was ASF (African swine fever). Smuggling, I will say, will be secondary. Now, we’ve seen the effect of ASF and avian influenza on the industry. That’s the primary reason,” PRLI president Edgar Dominic Milla said.

According to Milla, the design of the facility is scalable. The number of refrigerated containers coming from the Bureau of Customs and the DA can be increased to about 250 containers a day.

Agriculture Assistant Secretary James Layug said the Cefa would not only strengthen efforts to combat agricultural smuggling but also improve the process of examining imported food items.

“Right now, what happens is that we are only given a designated examination in the ports of entry, for example, at MICT (Manila International Container Terminal) and the Port of Manila,” Layug said.

At present, Layug noted that local authorities were only able to inspect about 10 percent of the entire shipment as the process of inspecting the imported goods was limited to opening and closing the containers.

After Bulacan, the DA is looking for other potential sites to put up other cold examination facilities in Cebu and Davao.