Plant health officials confirmed on Thursday that fresh mangoes a passenger tried to smuggle through Taoyuan International Airport last month contained larvae of one of the most devastating fruit pests -- the peach fruit fly.
The officials with the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health said Taiwan is free of the peach fruit fly, and that if the fruit fly establishes itself in the country it could have a devastating effect on Taiwan's mango farmers and other fruit growers.
On Aug. 9, customs officials at the airport found 29kg of mangoes in the luggage of a foreign national who arrived from Egypt via Singapore.
In accordance with standard quarantine procedure, the customs officials sent the mangoes to officials at the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health for further inspection.
Plant health officials at the bureau's Hsinchu branch cut into some of the mangoes and found worms inside the fruit. After one month, the creamy-white maggots grew into adult peach fruit flies, or Bactrocera zonata.
Officials urged people not to bring any fresh fruit or farm produce into the nation from abroad. They added that fruit seized at ports of entry this year from Thailand, Vietnam and Egypt were found to contain harmful organisms, including mango seed weevils and Bactrocera correcta -- a guava fruit fly.
Bactrocera zonata originated in South and Southeast Asia where it attacks many fruit species, including guavas, mangoes, peach, apricots, figs and citrus fruits. The fruit fly has spread to countries in the Middle East.
In recent years, the peach fruit fly has become a widespread pest in Egypt and 17 other countries. Egypt alone suffers 190 million euros (NT$8.8 million) in crop losses each year.
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