Portugal’s food safety police have seized more than 12,000 kilos of honey illegally imported from China.
ASAE today announced the discovery in a warehouse in Seia, Guarda and calculated that there were 12,600 kilos of honey marked as being from Spain but in fact originating from China.
In a statement today, ASAE said that the honey was found during a food safety operation when an illegal warehouse was raided.
The ASAE operation has been tracing illegal distribution patterns and tracked the product back to the warehouse.
In the same action ASEA seized 454 kilos of veterinary medicine for treating bee parasites.
The total value of the seizure is around €34,000 and ASAE has started prosecution proceedings against those found at the scene.
Comments
Nothing is straight forward here in Portugal ! Why would Chinese honey, in jars for re-sale through legitimate retail channels, be connected to bee parasite medicine for Portuguese bee keepers. No mention if this was also illegal.
So, putting on our Sherlock Holmes deerstalker, do we assume that Portuguese bee keepers were being sounded out about using the Chinese parasite medicine? And this, as it was undercutting the huge profit margins in vet products, was why someone tipped off the local vet ?
And can we expect any linkage being made to the Golden Visa Chinese gangsters Portugal famously flooded into the EU? That amongst them was Macao's Mr Bee? ( 先生蜜蜂 )