North P&I Club has notified members that soya bean cargoes exported from the US to China were now subject to new requirements, part of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s attempt to reduce claims and delays at discharge.
The USDA’s Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS) said that it would now sample the soya bean shipments and determine if the cargo contents exceeded 1% foreign material. If it did then an additional comment would be added to the phytosanitary certificate stating “this consignment exceeds 1% foreign material”.
North said that Chinese authorities had agreed this with the USDA and would not be delay vessels based solely on the volume of foreign material in the cargo.