usaid office of food for peace guatemala bellmon estimation

Prepared by Fintrac Inc.
(OIRSA, "El Organismo Internacional Regional de Sanidad Agropecuaria) actually undertakes
inspection and fumigation activities.
Almost all food imports undergo fumigation at Santo Tomás; however, port authorities noted that
food aid shipments tend to be more frequently infested than normal commercial shipments. The
reason for such frequent need for fumigation of food aid remains unclear.
According to FAO's phytosanitary guidelines (Taylor, 1996), infestation of food aid can result
from any of the following:
Country of origin: Pests can be carried into the postharvest system if not controlled, and
are likely to increase with prolonged storage time.
Ship and freight: If vessels and/or trucks are not thoroughly cleaned between routes,
pests from previous shipments may damage goods. If goods are traveling to warmer
climates, chances of infestation increase.
Cross infestation: Vessels calling at other ports along the route may pick up pests at
these mid-point destinations.
Destination port: Pests are common in transit sheds and storage areas of many ports.
Infestation of cargo which sits more than two days at the port can be expected (Taylor,
1996).
Almost all of the above reasons for infestation were cited as possible causes for infestation of
food aid in Guatemala.
If an uncommon pest is identified during inspection, identification and treatment may take up to
three weeks. MAGA must send information and photos of unknown pests to the Universidad de
Valle for further guidance. Puerto Santo Tomás only allows 45 days of free waiting time at the
port; after this, port fees are roughly US$50 per day.
Awardees noted that they often need to re-fumigate commodities upon warehouse arrival.
Although OIRSA fumigates at the port, Awardees noted that this fumigation is not always
thorough or sufficient after the additional time lapse from storage and transport.
Taxes and customs. Guatemala's Superintendencia de Administración Tributaria (SAT) office
and port customs office handle documentation for imports. The customs office at Santo Tomás
is open from 8 AM-11 PM, every day of the year.
Upon arrival at the port, customs randomly 59
marks containers red or green with a randomized
"traffic light/go-or-stop" system, and red containers are subject to additional inspection. 60
In
addition to a thorough inspection of red containers, all commodities must be cleared according
to proper documentation.
59
Although the selection of red and green containers is done by a computerized system, this system takes characteristics such as
country of origin and type of cargo into consideration.
60
The system's operation manual claims that 15 percent of cargo is marked red; during BEST interviews, port authorities estimated
that 30-40 percent of cargo is marked red; a 2003 report on the inefficiencies of Santo Tomás estimated that 90-100 percent of
cargo is marked red (Kent, 2003).
BEST Analysis – Guatemala Chapter 4 – Adequacy of Ports, Storage, and Transport 40