Internet delivers lollipop scorpions to Australia
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Live honey bees, chocolate-coated insects or lollipops with scorpions.
Consumers love the ease, and the choice, of food shopping on the Internet. But it's making the job of Australia's quarantine inspectors more difficult as they try to stem rising imports of banned food, animal and plant items.
The Australian Quarantine Inspections Service (AQIS) has confiscated live, dead, processed and just truly bizarre items in recent years.
The country has one of the world's toughest quarantine regimes aimed at keeping diseases from entering the island continent, a major agricultural nation and home to unique animals such as kangaroos and the platypus.
Importing contraband can carry a fine of A$60,000 (US$53,000).
"There has been an explosive growth in buying foods over the internet. It's been the most significant area of change and growth in the range of things coming into Australia through air cargo and international mail," said AQIS spokesman Carson Creagh.
"We get some fairly creative descriptions on the declarations," said Creagh. "We intercepted a whole salami declared as wallpaper samples."
"We got a parcel with almost a whole (leg of) ham coming in from France. With a note saying: 'as you suggested I've packed this ham in hand soap, so the dogs won't be able to pick it up'."
AQIS employs about 40 detector dog teams working at international mail centers and air cargo centers around Australia. It also X-rays items.
"Our dogs have got the most incredible noses and they can sniff out these sorts of things," Creagh said. "We don't go on what's written on the declaration form."
"The job is becoming more challenging all the time because there has been about a 10 percent growth every year in the amount of mail and air cargo items coming into Australia, that's been matched by the amount of interceptions," Creagh said.
About 150 million items are sent to Australia each year.
The growth of contraband has seen online auction house eBay Australia work with the quarantine service to stop illegal items entering the country.
"So when you go to make purchases through eBay you have a link to quarantine information which warns people that this is something that you could lose your money on," Creagh said.
(Editing by David Fogarty)
