Exports To Vladivostok Faces Customs And Transportation Difficulties
Exports to Vladivostok Faces Customs And Transportation Difficulties
A week after it came into effect, Galina Kochubeeva, USMEF Moscow manager, visited Vladivostok to report to members her impressions of the consequences of the November 17 regulation reducing the number of customs points approved for meat imports.
Vladivostok, in the Russian Far East, is the second largest destination in Russia for U.S. meat imports. In 2007, 32,300 metric tons of U.S. pork landed there. This represents about 30 percent of total meat imports arriving at this port.
There are now only two registered bonded warehouses (SVKhs) in Vladivostok: Vladais and Vladivostok’s Cold Storage. Both are located in the “Seaport Vladivostok” customs point and their total capacity is perhaps half what is needed. Two other bonded warehouses — Vladivostok container terminal and Dalreftrans — have applied for certification, but if approved they face transportation problems in the city of Vladivostok as heavy trucks can only operate after 8 p.m., and night tariffs are twice as high. The Nakhodka, Magadan and Sakhalin customs points, through which goods were transported directly to Sakhalin Island (the Russian Klondike), are closed and can no longer accept meat imports.
Customs procedures concerning the forwarding of containers from the port’s container terminal to the bonded warehouses for declaration and customs clearance are unclear, and there is no definite internal customs transit procedure. The number of trucks certified for internal customs transit is restricted to eight, and the customs staff totals only four. Shipping company agents in Vladivostok don’t have enough certified trucks, and importers have to collect shipments themselves.
Importers report that customs clearance of meat products is taking 10 to 20 days (compared to three to four days in St. Petersburg) because all containers are checked. Containers are released from Vladivostok customs only after the receipt of the results of salmonella and bacterial analysis (a minimum five-day turnaround).
High freight rates deter Russian Far Eastern importers from buying Brazilian and Argentinean meat, but because Vladivostok importers do not have a large share of the import quotas they import a lot of out-of-quota product. Beef imports from Australia and New Zealand also arrive at Vladivostok.
The Russia Far East is experiencing difficulties in maintaining a steady supply of meat due to high prices and a chronic lack of available containers from the United States.
Exports to Vladivostok Faces Customs And Transportation Difficulties
A week after it came into effect, Galina Kochubeeva, USMEF Moscow manager, visited Vladivostok to report to members her impressions of the consequences of the November 17 regulation reducing the number of customs points approved for meat imports.
Vladivostok, in the Russian Far East, is the second largest destination in Russia for U.S. meat imports. In 2007, 32,300 metric tons of U.S. pork landed there. This represents about 30 percent of total meat imports arriving at this port.
There are now only two registered bonded warehouses (SVKhs) in Vladivostok: Vladais and Vladivostok’s Cold Storage. Both are located in the “Seaport Vladivostok” customs point and their total capacity is perhaps half what is needed. Two other bonded warehouses — Vladivostok container terminal and Dalreftrans — have applied for certification, but if approved they face transportation problems in the city of Vladivostok as heavy trucks can only operate after 8 p.m., and night tariffs are twice as high. The Nakhodka, Magadan and Sakhalin customs points, through which goods were transported directly to Sakhalin Island (the Russian Klondike), are closed and can no longer accept meat imports.
Customs procedures concerning the forwarding of containers from the port’s container terminal to the bonded warehouses for declaration and customs clearance are unclear, and there is no definite internal customs transit procedure. The number of trucks certified for internal customs transit is restricted to eight, and the customs staff totals only four. Shipping company agents in Vladivostok don’t have enough certified trucks, and importers have to collect shipments themselves.
Importers report that customs clearance of meat products is taking 10 to 20 days (compared to three to four days in St. Petersburg) because all containers are checked. Containers are released from Vladivostok customs only after the receipt of the results of salmonella and bacterial analysis (a minimum five-day turnaround).
High freight rates deter Russian Far Eastern importers from buying Brazilian and Argentinean meat, but because Vladivostok importers do not have a large share of the import quotas they import a lot of out-of-quota product. Beef imports from Australia and New Zealand also arrive at Vladivostok.
The Russia Far East is experiencing difficulties in maintaining a steady supply of meat due to high prices and a chronic lack of available containers from the United States.