BOC expects to generate P149M from auction of illegally imported rice

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Customs (BOC) expects to generate at least P149 million from the auction of over 4,600 metric tons of illegally imported rice.

The bulk of the rice to be auctioned off was seized from Starcraft International Trading and Silent Royalty Marketing, which are believed to be linked to suspected rice smuggler David Tan. These were intercepted last year for lack of required import permits from the National Food Authority (NFA).

The BOC will hold two separate auctions – one at the Manila International Container Terminal Port and Port of Cebu on Dec. 23 and 29, respectively.

To be auctioned off at the Port of Cebu are 67,340 sacks of smuggled rice, equivalent to 3.37 million kilograms.

The sale is divided into 11 lots, consisting of 83 container vans of white rice, 45 container vans of glutinous rice, and two container vans of what was classified as ‘poor quality’ rice from Vietnam.

The white rice has a minimum floor price of P25.87 per kilo while the glutinous rice was pegged at P48.67 per kilo. At least P112.75 million is expected to be raised from the sale.

The seized goods will be available for viewing and pre-bid conference on Tuesday, Dec. 23.

The remaining 1.3 million kilos of rice will be auctioned off at the BOC-MICP with a minimum bid price of P25.84 per kilo of white rice and P34.61 per kilo of glutinous rice.

The auction is divided into ten lots — nine of which are seized rice shipments of Intercontinental Grains International Trading, consisting of 8,780 sacks of white rice and 6,240 sacks of glutinous rice. One lot, consisting of 11,441 bags of white rice, was seized from Evergreen Cereal.

The BOC filed separate smuggling-related cases against Intercontinental Grains International Trading, Starcraft International Trading and Silent Royalty Marketing for the unlawful importation of over 65 million kilos of rice with an estimated market value of over P2.7 billion.

The BOC-Port of Manila raised P61.9 million from its public auction last week of 47,840 sacks of smuggled rice seized from Bold Bidder Marketing and San Carlos Multi-Purpose Cooperative.

A total of 12 bidders participated in the auction, with Sta. Rosa Farm Products Corp. and Victor del Rosario placing the winning bids. There were no takers for two other lots, one consisting of 5,200 bags of glutinous rice and the other seven LCD television sets.