THE Cebu Provincial African Swine Fever (ASF) Task Force seized boxes of imported canned goods at Pier 1 Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019.
The products, which are made from processed pork meat, are suspected to have come from an ASF virus-infected country and are banned from entering Cebu.
About P200,000 worth of the Chinese product Maling were shipped from Bohol. These were first intercepted by the Bureau of Animal Industry Veterinary Quarantine Station (BAI VQS) 7 and the Cebu Port Authority at the Pier 1 Tuesday.
The goods included 966 cans of 170-gram and 246 cans of 340- grams Maling cans. They reportedly were from Cebu and were shipped to Bohol, but were ordered shipped back to Cebu.
Port Police Sr./Insp. Adolfo Abregana Jr., chief of operations section in Cebu Ports Authority, said the shipper is EAL Development Group Inc.
The shipper had documents but had no FDA certification, thus it was reported to the Department of Agriculture Regional Veterinarian Quarantine Office.
The quarantine office then raised the alarm to the province's Task Force.
The task force brought the confiscated products to the province-owned warehouse in M. Velez, awaiting thermal destruction.
ASF Vice Chair Dr. Mary Rose Vingcoy says they have yetto schedule the disposal of the confiscated products.
Shipper EAL is operating in Mandaue City and is the sole supplier of Maling products in all supermarkets in Cebu and one supermarket in Bohol.
According to Celeste Laput, a representative of the EAL, all Maling products that were distributed to all their clients in Cebu were already pulled out.
Laput said they already pulled out their products from the market since they were made aware of the executive order issued by Gov. Garcia. (PR/Capitol PIO)