Smuggling garlic has become a lucrative crime in the EU, ever since the bloc intruduced a duty of 9.5 percent on the herb. According to the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), the UK, Italy and Poland are the member states most vulnerable to Chinese garlic being smuggled in. The EU has lost millions of euro because of the illegal smuggling of garlic from China, “not to mention the indirect losses by means of unfair competition and loss of market share by EU producers,” Pavel Borkovec from OLAF was quoted by the BBC as saying.

According to Mr Borkovec, smugglers usually declare that the transported garlic comes from a countries such as Turkey or Egypt, with which the EU has preferential customs agreements, or they declare that they are transporting some other vegetable or fruit.

For example, in January 2011, Polish customs officers discovered a load of 144 metric tons of Chinese garlic, which was declared as onions. The smugglers were attempting to avoid paying some €180,000 in duties, Rzeczpospolita reported.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reports that in 2010 China produced 18.5 million tons of garlic, about 80 percent of total global production.

Poland A.M.