The State vetoes the entry of frozen products of non-animal origin into the ports of Las Palmas

Given this scenario, the port entity proposed rent a cold container and place it at the La Luz inspection point, apart from the camera that the installation already had, as a temporary solution to be able to resume service in the shortest possible time. The measure was approved by the Ministry of Health department, which granted authorization again. However, Arrecife and Puerto del Rosario are still pending to recover this permit.

Those affected speak: “It is costing us dearly”

Some of the affected importing companies have decided to raise their voices and denounce the situation in which they found themselves involved “without eating or drinking it and without being to blame for anything”, as stated by Mario Cruz, director of Alcruz Canarias SL, and the which, furthermore, continues to generate a series of expenses which, according to Cruz, do not correspond to them. “All this is costing us a lot,” she confesses on the other end of the phone.

These businesses demand from Foreign Health a definitive solution for the port of La Luz and Las Palmas, with the intention that “don’t just be a patch,” as pointed out by another of the injured parties, director of a customs agency in Arrecife.

But, above all, They demand the unlocking of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, where containers with products of non-animal origin from countries not belonging to the European Union must be redirected to other ports due to the impossibility of passing control at their own docks.

In this sense, the Port Authority proposed, in the case of Lanzarote, using a freezing chamber that the port of Arrecife has and that is currently unused as an alternative to work with this type of merchandise. However, according to the public body, although the procedure was carried out a little over a month ago, it is still “has not received a response from the Ministry.”

The delay worries those affected. «The usual thing happens, they quickly solve the problem in the port of Las Palmas, because that is where they suppose they do the most damage, but then they don’t pay any attention to the so-called minor islands,” says the director of the Lanzarote customs agency. «It may take months until Health gives the go-ahead. What do we do in the meantime? », He says.

With respect to Puerto del Rosario, the port entity has not presented any temporary solution to deal with the veto, as it did with the port of La Luz or Arrecife, since it assures that this, for the moment, “has not transferred any need.”

The health notice

The director of Alcruz Canarias SL felt like a shock from the statement he received on February 7 from Foreign Health.

In it, he was informed that the container of sweet corn from China that he was expecting could not pass inspection at the ports of La Luz and Las Palmas, since The authorization for this had been withdrawn from the facility, as well as the Gran Canaria airport, as indicated in the document. He later learned that the veto also extended to the ports of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.

When he thought he had no choice but to move the merchandise to Tenerife to pass control, “the pressure exerted by the affected companies and the Port Authority” managed to get La Luz to recover the authorization “sooner rather than later.”

«If not, I would have had to find a shipping company to take it to Tenerife and another to bring it back to Gran Canaria. That would have cost me, at least, about 3,000 euros, although I still had to pay for the delay,” explains Cruz.

With another container, which came from Egypt, he did not have the same luck and was forced to reroute it before it landed in Fuerteventura. “I called to have him taken off the ship and sent directly to Gran Canaria, because in Puerto del Rosario I knew he was not going to pass control,” he says.

Faced with this, the Port Authority is considering as a possible long-term solution the build a second cold room at the Border Inspection Points of the ports of Las Palmas “when there is demand for such.”