Tourists who want to “recoup” a part of their travel expenses by delivering familiar food to local ex-pats can receive a serious fine or even imprisonment – or at least confiscation of the “property” they brought. As the tourist reported in her blog, tourists in Thailand began to be fined and sent to prison under a new law that is very easy to break.
It is about banning the import of food products into Thailand without a phytosanitary certificate. Fruits, meat, cheese, and vegetable raw materials in the form of plant seeds… For tourists, as the blogger adds, the problem is that for many years the delivery of usual products to local expats is a kind of business for tourists.
“Many ex-pats who have been living in Thailand for a long time ask to bring something so harmful and delicious, and tourists do not bring anything with them! Even meatballs! Buying products from Europe in Thailand is expensive and often they become currency in the community of compatriots. The famous “buckwheat course” is almost a meme. It is customary to fill empty suitcases with something delicious to order from social networks, and now you have already covered part of the trip,” the blogger says. But it turns out that in this way the tourist breaks the law.
“It is forbidden to import any food you like, no matter for what purpose,” the blogger emphasized and cited a statement from the Minister of Agriculture of Thailand, Rapiphat Chantarasrivong: “Many Thais are returning to their homeland, and tourists are coming to rest. They bring with them different fruits such as persimmons and grapes, which are cheaper than in Thailand. We would like to warn that such behavior is a violation of the law, even if it is unintentional.” At the same time, he stated that in case of violation, the culprit faces, in addition to a prison term and a fine, the confiscation and destruction of the disputed property, that is, the imported products. And the fine is promised in the form of 20,000 baht (about 20,000 UAH) or a year in prison.
However, as the blogger adds, most likely “there are far fewer precedents than successful cases.” In Thailand, the strictness of the laws is also often compensated by non-compulsory enforcement. The blogger also cites a comment from a tourist. “The bags were checked at the airport, the raw smoked sausage was taken out, the paper was shown – a fine of 200,000 or 5 years of imprisonment. We said – we will not sign. They confiscated our sausage, took photos of our passports, and let us go.”
“Let’s hope this law will continue to allow people like me to politely bypass it, and it is customary to export fruits from Thailand instead of importing them,” the blogger added.