Russian tourists who want to “recapture” part of the funds for the trip by delivering familiar food to local expats can receive a serious fine, or even imprisonment – or at least confiscation of the “property” they brought. As a Russian tourist wrote on her blog in Yandex.Zen, in Thailand, tourists began to be fined and imprisoned under a new law that is “easier to break.”
We are talking about a ban on the import of food products into Thailand without a phytosanitary certificate. Fruit, meat, cheese and vegetable raw materials in the form of plant seeds… For Russian tourists, as the blogger adds, the problem is that for many years now, delivering familiar products to local expats has been a kind of business for tourists. “Many expats who have been living in Thailand for a long time ask to bring something harmful and tasty, and tourists bring everything with them! Even meatballs! Buying products from Russia in Thailand is expensive and often becomes a currency in the community of compatriots. The famous “buckwheat course” is almost a meme. It is customary to fill empty suitcases with something tasty on orders from social networks, and now you have already recaptured part of the trip, ”says the blogger. But it turns out that in this way the tourist breaks the law.
“It is forbidden to import any food, no matter for what purpose,” the blogger emphasized and quoted from the statement of the Minister of Agriculture of Thailand Rapiphat Chantarasrivong: “Many Thais return to their homeland, and tourists come to rest. They bring different fruits with them, such as persimmons and grapes, which are cheaper than in Thailand. We would like to warn that such behavior is against the law, even if it is unintentional.” At the same time, he stated that in case of violation, the culprit, in addition to a prison term and a fine, faces confiscation and destruction of the disputed property, that is, imported products. Moreover, the fine is promised in the amount of 20 thousand baht (about 50 thousand rubles) or one year in prison.
However, as the blogger adds, most likely “there are much fewer precedents than successful ones.” In Thailand, too, the strictness of the laws is often compensated by the optionality of enforcement. The blogger also provides a comment from a tourist. “At the airport, they checked the bags, pulled out raw smoked sausage, showed paper – a fine of 200 thousand or 5 years in prison. We said we would not sign. They confiscated our sausage, photographed our passports and let us go.”
“Hopefully, this law will continue to be allowed to be politely bypassed by such bunglers like me, and fruit is usually taken out of Thailand, not imported into it” , – added the blogger.
For those who care about a healthy lifestyle, we recommend reading: “It has been established that frequent consumption of fried foods leads to anxiety and depression.”