Vietnamese customers should be careful when bringing pork products into Thailand.

Tourists visiting Thailand are being warned about a ban on bringing pork products into the country, including for personal use.

“Beagle inspectors,” as the sniffer dogs are called, are being deployed at international airports in Thailand to detect any meat products that could potentially contain strains of the African swine fever (ASF) virus, according to Phuket News .

Sniffer dogs deployed at Suvarnabhumi International Airport to detect pork in travelers' luggage

DLD

The warning was issued last week to inform tourists and locals about the ban on bringing pork into Thailand without inspection. Thai localities have also stepped up their efforts to disseminate this information, sharing photos of recent seizures of sausages brought into Thailand by tourists by “beagle inspectors” at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport.

According to Thailand’s Department of Livestock Development (DLD), many cases of bringing pork products into the country have been caught at the airport in recent times. For example, on October 13, police discovered 31 kg of pork sausages carried by a Filipino passenger on a Cebu Pacific flight and confiscated them. In another case, a passenger carrying sausages, bacon, etc. on a Philippine Airlines flight was also confiscated.

Signs advising tourists not to bring pork into Thailand at the airport have been erected in many languages ​​such as Vietnamese, Chinese, Lao... "Advice: Prohibition of bringing pork into Thailand due to African swine fever. Do not bring pork, sausages, bacon or any kind of meat into Thailand without permission from DLD. Tourists will be prosecuted if they violate," the information reads.

Mr. Nguyen Minh Man, Director of Communications and Marketing of TST Tourist Company, said that Vietnamese tourists going abroad often bring pork floss, small bottles of fish sauce, dried anchovies, etc. Even though they go to countries in the region with similar cuisines, for many different reasons, Vietnamese tourists often bring some of the above mentioned items. "We will advise tourists about the ban on bringing pork products into Thailand to avoid trouble," said Mr. Man.

Thanhnien.vn