THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) is set to auction this week more than 4,600 metric tons (MT) of smuggled rice, which could bring in P139 million in revenues for the bureau.
In a statement, the BOC said the smuggled shipments were owned by trading firms Intercontinental Grains International Trading, Evergreen Cereal Inc. and Starcraft International Trading and Silent Royalty Marketing.
The firms are being linked to David Tan, who is suspected to be a big-time rice smuggler.
The first auction is set on Tuesday at the Manila International Container Port.
It covers 1.3-million kilograms of white and glutinous rice with the total minimum floor price set at P36.88 million, or P25.84 per kilo of white rice and P34.61 per kilo of glutinous rice.
The auction is divided into 10 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, consisted of 11,441 bags of white rice, was seized from Evergreen Cereal.
On December 29, the Port of Cebu is set to auction a total of 67,340 sacks of smuggled rice that were imported by Starcraft International Trading and Silent Royalty Marketing.
The contraband arrived in Cebu in October 2013 but were seized by customs authorities due to the failure of the importer to obtain the required import permits from the National Food Authority.
The sale is divided into 11 lots and is consisted 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 is priced at P25.87 per kilo, while glutinous rice was pegged at P48.67 per kilo. It is expected to generate a minimum of P112.75 million in revenues.
The public auction through sealed bidding will be conducted at the Auction and Cargo Disposal Division (ACDD) at the Cebu Customs House in the Port of Cebu.
The seized goods will be available for viewing and prebid conference on Tuesday, December 23.
The BOC has 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.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Custom-Port of Manila said it has raised P61.9 million from its public auction of 47,840 sacks of smuggled rice seized from Bold Bidder Marketing and San Carlos Multi-Purpose Cooperative on Friday. The amount is marginally higher than the minimum floor price of P61.87 million.
A total of 12 bidders participated in the auction, with Sta. Rosa Farm Products Corp. and Victor del Rosario placing the winning bids.