1 week Ago
Hundreds of millions of baht in damages are feared after Thai sugar products were stopped in mid-shipment to China after the country’s food safety agency raised concerns about hygiene in Thai factories. Thai cargo ships containing over 400 million baht worth of syrup have been left stranded off China’s coast as a result. According to the Office of Agricultural Affairs of the Thai embassy in Beijing, the Food Safety Bureau of the General Administration of Customs (GACC) has issued a declaration against Thai-produced syrup (code 170290110) and pre-mixed sugar powder (code 1702901200).
The bureau cited unhygienic conditions at the production facilities for the two products in Thailand and called for evaluations of the management of the factories. The announcement outlined two orders: suspension of the registration of new syrup and pre-mixed powder facilities, and a ban on any shipments made from Thailand after Dec 10 last year from entering China. The Office of Agricultural Affairs is now trying to help exporters, initially seeking to facilitate the entry of any shipments made before the indicated date.
The GACC has stressed that a “competent authority” must carry out assessments of the Thai processing plants before shipments can resume. Todsaporn Ruangpattananont, president of the Thai Sugar Trade Industry Association, said on Saturday that 47 facilities in Thailand have been affected and did not receive any notification prior to the announcement. Shipments worth an estimated 300 million to 400 million baht from exporters have been left floating after being denied entry to Chinese ports.
He said that 74 GACC-registered syrup and pre-mixed powder manufacturers in Thailand’s free zone would be unable to offload their goods if negotiations between Thailand’s Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives and the GACC do not reach a positive conclusion. The 74 factories account for 2.1 million tonnes of the kingdom’s 6.
5 million tonnes of domestically produced sugar. An inability to export this quantity would significantly impact sugar and sugarcane prices this year, according to Mr Todsaporn. Thailand is the largest exporter of processed sugar products under the Asean-China Free Trade Agreement, selling 29.
8 billion baht worth of goods to China annually..
