International mail the major source of introduced pests

In the first quarter this year, Nanjing Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine has hunted down and seized totally 181 contraband goods from international mails and express luggages, three times higher than that in the same period last year. Among all the contraband goods seized, there are 51 batches of state-level prohibited goods and 96 batches of cosmetics from mad-cow-disease affected regions, up 600 percent and 1,200 percent from last year respectively, and one case of plant disease. All the facts show that international mail has become one of the major ways of introduced pests.

The quality of international mails and express luggage has change a lot in recent years. In the past, the postal matters were mainly letters and living necessities. But now, production materials as well as plant and animal productions have become the major matters for the postal service, which has changed from life type to production type. Some IT enterprises even import raw materials through express luggage so as to meet the requirement of short run and rapid production.

Some units also take international mails as a major way when introducing small quantity of goods such as plants and related productions, plant seeds as well as animal semen. Since most of these postal matters have not been quarantined and not examined and approved by the relevant departments in China, the contraband goods and pests carried secretly into China through international mails and express luggage have multiplied in recent years.

By People's Daily Online