I was on Peach Airlines and they told all passengers (in Japanese/Chinese) about the meat ban and million dollar fine via the loudspeaker. On flights with TV/Video they play a short film about the meat ban (from Shanghai) so they do tell people and seems to work as very few people carry meat into Taiwan.
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Latest casualty from the stiff fines was a Swiss passenger with 0.9 kilos of sausages. Swiss national was fined 200k NTD or nearly 7000 USD for the ehem contraband.
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You don’t have to pay the fine but then they won’t let you in. That dude must be living here, ouch.
BTW, they are checking all incoming flights from Asia, all of Asia, not just affected countries. Expect long lines at Taoyuan…coming in…
Ow, ow, and ow! And I thought that 10k NTD was nasty and painful!
People from non-infected or no risk areas just have no idea about this, and I know for a fact that while some or maybe most airlines issue warnings, some don’t e.g. Scoot. Of course coming from infected areas, the airlines and all the passengers would be more likely to be sensitive about the high level of concern for Taiwan.
The last time on the same flight from Osaka KIX to KHH we arrived early behind a large flight from Manila. Both immigrations and customs were very backed up. They were xraying everyone from Manila and Osaka. I didn’t know it but the flights from Manila are super cheap, like under $50 USD RT - unbelievable but that’s what I discovered on kayak.com. No wonder they are full of tourists.
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Actually, if you see the offending sausages, they are not from Europe… Me thinks Austrian passport holder of Asian origin bought them stuffs somewhere in Asia.
Note: flight came from HK
The thing is even if you are not aware, you see the ads when you arrive, you see people scrambling throwing stuff away, you see the long lines and search…wouldn´t you be inclined to ask why?
Another 洋腸 ruining it for the rest of us
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My wife has to take instant noodles anywhere. This time she didn’t eat them and brought them back in. I had carefully warned her about bringing in any meat, and I knew about the noodles but didn’t think twice about them. When we came in they started pointing at them and the meat in the ingredients. I protested that they were made in Taiwan, and started getting ready to have an aneurysm. They didn’t care but luckily just put us on some list, made us sign and promise not to do it again 
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Without a higher resolution picture it’s pretty much impossible to tell, you can buy sausages vacuum packed in that manner in Europe.
It’s been discussed in this thread before, in many cases the ads are not very visible anymore, I have never ever seen anyone throwing stuff away and I travel frequently, no long lines in either Taoyuan or Songshan the last few times I traveled. Traveled through Songshan returning from China two weeks ago and the additional carry on baggage check is at the exit customs station (unlike Taoyuan where is it prior to immigration), the same way it is in almost all airports in China so it wouldn’t raise any flags. Somewhat unfair in a way as if meat were detected in your carry on in Taoyuan you presumably wouldn’t be fined as you are still in the airport, in Songshan you would as you were attempting to leave the airport.
Officials have confirmed that the Philippines failed to keep out the African swine fever epidemic.
So if you bring any pork product from the Philippines, be ready to be fined for at least NTD 200K.
That map is from August. One more country to be colored red.
By the way, China is now rationing pork.
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I know it is easy to forget. maybe it is not in teh news anymore? My coworker also had a fright with the instant noodles, but managed to throw them out before the luggage check. And we write about this stuff.
I do my best to include info regarding sandwiches, instant noodles, snacks, stuff people may forget could be on the red list.
But seriously, I don´t know what else authorities can do to raise awareness. Ads is customs, announcements on planes, those are allegedly being done.
Maybe that now the checks extend to all Asia flights, maybe it will be more of an issue. That means there were 10 countries being checked only, now it is everyone.
BTW, do not forget: NO MOONCAKES!
My boss is in India so I message that don’t bring anything edible as she loves to bring back lots of nuts.
It certainly unlikely to feature highly on the news outside of Taiwan.
I doubt if many, indeed any, of those fined read Forumosa.
They could put up some proper signage, make proper announcements in the airports the same way they did in the beginning of the initiative. Institute a landing card for customs that passengers have to fill out, the way it’s done in many countries, Australian card as an example;
Fining people is pretty much useless as a deterrent to overseas visiters if the only people who know about the fines are citizens of your own country.
Well, their excuse with the fines is that the other countries are doing it, translation: Japan´s fines are much steeper.
Yes, I saw a dude in trouble who had only grain type products like beans and maybe nuts. He had been pulled aside and all his eatibles were out on the counter, obviously he was getting fined too. So don’t bring your dals with you from India! Now that they are x-raying all the bags on some flights, stuff that was probably long overlooked is now getting discovered and taken away with fines levied. Even pure veg products like uncooked beans.
I flew in from China recently to Taoyuan, massive lines pretty all passengers were stopped on all Asian flights .
Actually I read an English article from possibly the Hong Kong paper (not Japanese anyway) and the quoted a Japanese customs official saying that they have to go through a formal inditement to levey those stiff fines, cannot just make the offenders pay on the spot, apparently. Hence they don’t bother charging offenders. On that evidence the excuse about Japan would be bogus. Not that Taiwan needs any excuse anyway.
I went back to Japan from Taiwan in July and the customs officer did not check any bags and did not even ask whether I had any food.
Queuing in what area?
I have friends who go between their places in France and in Taipei. She is Taiwanese. In June they returned to Taoyuan and she had grabbed some leftover ham from the fridge. Lucky for them they were not checking at the time they went thru customs. She spends half of the year in Taiwan but she had no awareness of the embargo, just didn’t think about grabbing what was in the fridge to take with her. Unless you are really guilty of knowingly smuggling, it’s still really easy to break the embargo out of simple natural thoughtlessness or cluelessness.