In July 2015, Port Vila Customs intercepted a suspicious import from China consisting of 30,000 pieces of 500g brown sugar repackaging bags complete with labels of nutritional facts and contents.
The suspicious thing about this import was that the consignment was imported on behalf of another retailer in town who does not import brown sugar from China.
This repackaging activity is therefore a clear breach of section 3 of the Food (Control) Act which states that “No person shall label, package, treat, process, sell or advertise any food in a manner that is false, misleading, deceptive or likely to create an erroneous impression regarding its character, value, quality, composition, merit or safety”.
An Importer in Port Vila was penalized by the Health Authorities for breaching section 3 of the Food (Control) Act.
It was understood that this activity has been happening for over three years under the radar of the authority concerned. The retailer was therefore penalized and has been ordered by the Health Authorities to cease the current repackaging activity immediately until such a time that it is done in accordance to the law. This retailer will now be getting regular compliance visit by the Health Authorities and Customs will be paying extra attention to the future imports of both importers.
Not only was this operation successful in terms of our efforts to protect the well being of our communities, it shows the close working relationship between Customs and other Authorities in Vanuatu. This should send a clear message to Importers who wish to break any laws of this country that if you are not caught by one Authority, there may be one or two others watching.
