Faster clearance time aims to help agricultural sector

2020-12-09
China Daily

Ningbo Customs has made great strides in shortening the clearance time of agricultural products, as part of efforts to improve the business environment. 
The customs clearance time is one of the key factors to evaluate the business climate of a port, said customs officers.

Especially for importers of agricultural goods, a fast customs clearance is vital to products' freshness and quality, they added.

During the outbreak of COVID-19, Ningbo Customs rolled out 12 measures to support enterprises' import and export of agricultural products.

These included streamlining administrative procedures, simplifying the materials needed for customs clearance, and reducing the testing time.

Among the beneficiaries is Genhong Trade, a foreign trade enterprise based in Chengdu, Sichuan province. The company imported more than 300 metric tons of soybeans from Brazil in December 2019.

Due to the pandemic and the change of consignee, the goods had been stuck in the Port of Ningbo for nearly four months.

The company thus had to pay a huge detention fee and soybeans were at risk of deterioration.

Given that it was a special case during the health crisis, Ningbo Customs gave it a priority to deal with the company's customs declaration.

Local officials took measures at once, helping the company prepare the required documents and speed up the review process.

As a result, the inspection of soybeans was completed within one day.

After the clearance, Ningbo Customs contacted the customs service at the goods' destination to ensure smooth cross-customs transportation for the company.

Customs officers also helped the business apply for fee remission.

"I would like to express my appreciation for Ningbo Customs' great support and help for our company," said the company's head surnamed Hu.

"Their effective services saved us from financial losses of millions of yuan," Hu added.

To further enhance the efficiency of customs clearance, Ningbo Customs has built 10 primary screening rooms for pest detection at ports.

In the past, plants and agricultural products with risks were sent to a designated laboratory and it took importers much time waiting for test results.
But now testing can be completed on-site so that importers can receive their goods in a shorter time, said officials from Ningbo Customs.

In the future, customs will develop an array of standards for the clearance time of plants and animals.

The standardized time will be set based on bulk data about the five key phases of customs clearance including the declaration, enterprises' preparation, and laboratory tests.

Once the standards come into use, the customs clearance efficiency of agricultural products will rise by 30-85 percent, according to Ningbo Customs.

From January to October, 12,000 batches of agricultural products were imported through the Port of Ningbo. They were valued at 8.04 billion yuan ($1.23 billion) in total, up about 1.7 percent year-on-year.