Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said Tuesday that the delay in the shipping and delivery of imported agricultural products was due to weather disturbances, including recent typhoons.

 “The delay was caused by force majeure,” he said.

Last week, the Agriculture chief Jr. urged the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) to expedite the movement of nearly a thousand container vans of imported rice, the majority of which have been sitting in Manila ports for months. 

PPA General Manager Jay Santiago said on Monday in a Palace briefing that over 888 shipping vans have been stationary in Manila ports, which contain over 23 million kilograms, or 23,000 metric tons, of imported rice.  

Of this, he said 300 containers were pulled out by their respective consignees last week, and he expects more to be removed from the ports before the end of the month.

Meanwhile, DA spokesperson Assistant Secretary Arnel De Mesa said the agency is still determining if there are crimes committed regarding  the overstaying of staple grain imports, as their top priority is ensuring food safety.

According to Laurel, closer cooperation with the Bureau of Customs (BOC)  and PPA will aid the DA in better time importation to enhance management of domestic food supply and ensure food security. 

“This would help improve our supply and price forecasting and avoid artificial shortages caused by product hoarding. Data that we will gather will also help us determine which importers to blacklist, if needed,” he said.

The DA is eyeing adding requirements to the import permits issued by its agencies, particularly the Bureau of Plant Industry and Bureau of Animal Industry.

This is to ensure that imported agricultural food products are immediately delivered to warehouses and sold to the market, the agency said.

The PPA will send a report to the DA on the overstaying of imported agricultural food prices and ask the BOC to declare these shipments as abandoned for proper disposition, according to Santiago.

PPA officials earlier suspected that consignees of container vans were possibly deliberately holding the release of rice imports to reduce warehousing costs or in anticipation of their higher market prices.