Customs officers inspect the imported wheat aboard.

Recently in Guangzhou Customs District, 66,000 tons of wheat from Lithuania was imported into Nansha Port by a large bulk carrier, marking the first import in bulk since the GACC announced the permission for Lithuanian wheat in July 2019.

“Over the International Trade Single Window platform, we made advance declaration for the imported Lithuanian wheat,” said Zhang Weizhong, deputy manager of Guangzhou Youcheng Freight Forwarding Company. Allegedly, the Customs finished the online declaration process in just 10 minutes through system and manual reviews.

In support of the quarantine on cargo arrival, Nansha Customs House worked out the inspection-quarantine program in advance and assigned relevant experts to inspect the wheat aboard in light of phytosanitary requirements, so as to ensure the cargo compliance and minimize the length of port stay.   

According to customs officers stationed at the anchorage, they conducted both health quarantine over the ship and surface quarantine over the wheat to find any epidemic and safety problems. The surface quarantine meant checking whether the cargo was dampened, mildewed, deteriorated and contaminated by any animals or plants, and so on.

After the surface quarantine, the surface samples were immediately sent to a grain laboratory located near the anchorage to make further tests of bacteria, virus, pests, etc.