East China's Zhejiang Province has launched an all-out campaign to eradicate poisoned longan that was sold illegally.

The longan was imported from Thailand and Viet Nam and was sold without quarantine certification.

More than 14,000 kilograms of fresh longan has been confiscated in Taizhou and Jinghua, while another four containers of the fruit were confiscated at Wenzhou.

According to a local report the case was first exposed at Taizhou, when officials with the city's industrial and commercial authority were on a routine investigation at a market in early August and discovered a retailer selling fresh longan with excessive pesticide residue.

More disturbing was that the retailer told them the use of sulfur dioxide to fumigate longan was a common practice and that he never allows his own child to eat fresh longan.

Over the next 10 days industrial and commercial officials in Taizhou checked various fruit retailers at markets, supermarkets, department stores and grocery stores. They found the majority of imported longan sold in the city contained excessive pesticide residue.

Since all the retailers said their fresh longan came from the city's one major fruit wholesale market, the Luqiao Market, officials decided to focus on wholesalers who got their imported longan from Jinghua and Wenzhou.

After intercepting cars transporting imported longan into the Luqiao Market, the officials were convinced the fruit was not cured in Taizhou. Instead, it "very possibly" was cured in its country of origin.

The poisoned longan was imported through customs at East China's Shanghai and Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province.

China Daily news

(China Daily 08/28/2003 page3)