Trade Ministry Clarifies Benblait Import File Scrutiny
The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Export Promotion has issued a clarification regarding the import file of the Benblait company, which specializes in mineral water production. The ministry's statement came in response to a widely circulated video in which Benblait, the company's manager, expressed concerns about what he perceived as a delay in obtaining an import program visa for the second half of 2026, specifically for spare parts. The ministry confirmed that the company's file was neither rejected nor frozen.
Instead, competent services requested modifications to Benblait's estimated import program due to the specific nature and substantial volume of the order. The ministry indicated that a request for adjustments was communicated to the company on August 20, 2026. However, as of the statement's publication date, no response to the modification request had been received, preventing the completion of the file review and its approval. The program submitted included 709 customs tariff items, encompassing a total of 10,522 spare parts.
The ministry further detailed that the Benblait company had previously received approval for 300 spare parts under the estimated program for the first half of 2026, on January 29, 2026. Additionally, 5,695 assorted spare parts were approved for the second half of 2025 on August 2, 2025. This means that within a 12-month period, the company had submitted requests to import a total of 16,517 different spare parts. The ministry emphasized that this high volume technically necessitates verifying the proportionality of these needs against the production unit's size, equipment, and actual production capacity, particularly when compared to other similar enterprises.
The ministry highlighted that other companies operating in the same sector, some with more than four production lines, typically request quantities of spare parts that do not exceed a quarter of what Benblait requested, despite possessing greater production capacities. Consequently, the technical data available to the ministry did not indicate a production unit size or operational capacity that would overtly justify such a high volume of spare part requests. This discrepancy prompted the audit and the request for modifications to the estimated program, rather than an outright rejection or obstruction of the company's activities. The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Export Promotion categorically rejected "false claims and data" contained in the video, asserting they are not based on official facts, and reserved the right to take legal action against any information that could harm its reputation or mislead public opinion. The ministry also affirmed its commitment to provide further clarifications on various import program visa requests through official documents and data from its digital platform, aiming to eliminate any inaccuracies.
