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Illegal produce from China and Singapore destroyed

Batam Agriculture Quarantine Agency (BKP) on Friday destroyed 1,300 packages of fruit and vegetables imported from China and Singapore without complete import documents

Fadli (The Jakarta Post)

Batam

Sat, April 13, 2013 Published on Apr. 13, 2013 Published on 2013-04-13T15:55:48+07:00

B

atam Agriculture Quarantine Agency (BKP) on Friday destroyed 1,300 packages of fruit and vegetables imported from China and Singapore without complete import documents. The increase in illegal imports of fruit and vegetables could pose health risks for people who consume them.

The agency's head of plant quarantine, Fajar Budi Susanto, told The Jakarta Post on Friday that 700 packages of broccoli and cauliflower from China and 600 packages of oranges and grapes from Singapore had been destroyed. Agency's officials found the packages in a container with no horticulture import product recommendation (RPIH) document.

'If we let them in, people who eat the may be taken ill. We cannot let it happen so we destroyed them,' said Fajar.

The quarantine agency has been tough on vegetable imports, especially from China. 'Most of illegally imported fruit and vegetable products which enter Batam came from China,' said Fajar

He said many fruit and vegetable importers in Batam were reluctant to obtain import documents so a lot of commodities were confiscated and destroyed by the quarantine agency. (nai/ebf)