Danger from 27 tons of unclaimed frozen meat

For nearly 2 years now, 27 tons of frozen meat have been stuck at Chua Ve port (Hai Phong) and have not been processed, giving off a foul smell and posing a risk of environmental pollution.

Hai Phong Customs officers inspect a shipment of frozen meat.

Two units refused to receive the goods.

That was confirmed by Mr. Vu Quoc Duong, Head of the Hai Phong Port Customs Branch, Region II, to Tien Phong reporter. According to Mr. Duong, the Branch has reported the incident to the General Department of Customs. Two containers containing 27 tons of frozen meat were imported to Chua Ve port (managed by the Branch) since the end of 2014.

Cat Tuong Shipping Company Limited (Cat Tuong Company) branch in Hai Phong is the shipping agent for the above shipment, and the enterprise on the bill of lading is Minh Khue Seafood Joint Stock Company (Mong Cai City, Quang Ninh).

On August 14, 2015, Minh Khue Seafood Joint Stock Company issued a document announcing that they were not the owner of the above shipment. On August 15, the shipment was notified to change the name of the receiving company to Dai Cac Company Limited (Mong Cai City). However, in November 2015, this company also issued a document refusing to receive the goods. Currently, the 27 tons of frozen meat above are damaged, emitting odors, causing serious environmental pollution.

Mr. Duong said that backlogs at ports often occur one after another, and not just in this case. For example, this shipment has just been processed, but the next ship has other shipments arriving at the port. If it has been more than 90 days and no one has received it, it becomes backlog.

“We have to send information to the newspaper to find the owner. If we cannot find it, we must have a plan to destroy it. The destruction depends on the freight forwarder. They have to pay for storage and electricity costs. When we took drastic measures, the Chua Ve Port business agreed to waive 65% of the storage fee for the ship owner. However, the ship owner demanded a 100% exemption. There is currently no agreement,” Mr. Duong added.

Is there any street food?

According to the representative of the Department, the Cat Tuong Company branch said that the current amount of money for storage at the port and the cost of plugging in electricity is up to 1 billion VND, not including the cost of destruction, so the unit has not been able to handle it and must ask for the opinion of the ship owner abroad.

In mid-April, the Department continued to send a document inviting representatives of Cat Tuong Company Branch and Chua Ve Port Business Enterprise to work. However, representatives of the two units only committed to reporting to the ship owner to request funding. Hai Phong Customs Department said that the speed of handling these two shipments depends entirely on the transport enterprise and the port business enterprise (agreeing on payment of storage, destruction and electricity costs).

If the shipping company fails to comply, there must be sanctions and remedial measures applied. According to the provisions of the 2014 Customs Law, the transport enterprise must take full responsibility for the above two shipments by re-exporting them out of Vietnam or paying all the costs of destruction.

Responding to questions about whether the frozen meat was shredded and smuggled into the market, Mr. Duong affirmed that this was temporary import for re-export, not for business purposes.

According to Tienphong