Chinese bringing food into Australia

[OwlHoot]

Had the TV on in the background and there's a program on airport customs in Australia checking the bags of Chinese visitors.

Not many seem to try smuggling in drugs, probably because they'd be shot if caught with them in China! But mystifyingly loads turn up with suitcases full of food, despite the hefty fines most know they risk.

I can't fathom it, and the program doesn't explain why. I can only guess they don't think they'll be able to find their preferred food in Australia, or it is cheaper in China.

Any ideas? I'd just turn them round and send them straight back!

[ladymuck]

It's bit like the Brits (my parents included) taking their own tea bags and bacon to Spain back in the day. It's still hard work getting hold of proper brown sauce in some parts.

It's much the same for any ex-pat community. There's home foods you simply cannot get in your new country, or they're super expensive. So, when Aunty is coming for a visit, she gets given a shopping list and they take a chance on not getting caught. Sometimes you get away with a fine, other times it gets confiscated.

I remember visiting a friend who was living in Dubai for a while. She asked me to bring over a load of porky products and some booze. Customs were doing spot checks on arrivals, x-raying cases and the like, and I could see people having all manner of stuff confiscated. I was exceptionally lucky and not selected for a check!

[SueEllen]

I do like a good customs programme. It basically tells you the stuff not to do.

[ladymuck]

I do like a good customs programme. It basically tells you the stuff not to do.

Yeah it's a public information film sold as entertainment

[DoctorStrangelove]

Some of the Chinese "foodstuffs" are enough to make you retch.

Packets of frog fat seem popular.

But my favourite ep had some malodorous chap from Bulgaria who'd turned up with about $150 expecting to stay for a month.

After he'd had a compulsory shower (the state of the soap afterwards was remarkable), they put him on a plane back whence he'd come.

[d000hg]

Was this a pre-Covid re-run?

[NotAllThere]

It's bit like the Brits (my parents included) taking their own tea bags and bacon to Spain back in the day. It's still hard work getting hold of proper brown sauce in some parts.

Well, at the moment you can't take bacon. We buy brown sauce, marmite and suet as they're largely unavailable. Tea because it's cheaper. Used to bring cheeses over to demonstrate to locals that there is a wide variety of British cheeses. Hopefully that'll get sorted out soon.

[NickFitz]

Was this a pre-Covid re-run?

They're about five to ten years old, those programmes. They're repeated endlessly on channels with numbers in the double digits. When they get to the end, they loop straight back to the beginning. Include weekend repeats and you could easily see the same episode six or seven times a year

[minestrone]

They're about five to ten years old, those programmes. They're repeated endlessly on channels with numbers in the double digits. When they get to the end, they loop straight back to the beginning. Include weekend repeats and you could easily see the same episode six or seven times a year

Crazy Like a Fox has 35 episodes and I've watched one every morning on channel 49 since the pandemic started.

[northernladuk]

I do like a good customs programme. It basically tells you the stuff not to do.

Yeah but the rank stupidity of some people is astounding.