Thai men hold durians at a warehouse in Tien Giang Province, where the fruits are to be soaked in perservatives and smuggled to China and Indonesia. Photo courtesy of Tuoi Tre

Police in theMekong Deltaprovince of Tien Giang have fined a group of Thai and Vietnamese smugglers for soaking local durians in unsafe preservatives before illegally bringing them into China and Indonesia.

The chemicals and fruit have been confiscated.

The police said the eight Thai people and a Vietnamese dealer will be fined VND10-20 million (US$473-947) each for the undocumented export of the fruits to the China and Indonesia.

Thailand Commerce Company in Ho Chi Minh City collected the fruits at its warehouse in Tien Giang, Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reported.

In one of Tuoi Tres visits, more than 20 Vietnamese were working for two Thai men. The Thaischosewhich fruitswere to be soaked in the strange preservative solution and the Vietnamese did the deed in a roomat the far end of house.

The durians were than tagged with Chinese labels, put in Chinese-language boxes and loaded ontoa truck.

The workers said each bucket (more than 40 liters) ofdark yellow liquidcould bathe 700 durians. The warehouse used around ten buckets a day and the solutions were mixed by the Thai bosses, according to Tuoi Tre.

A Thai man expressed anger and signaled the Tuoi Tre reporter to leave when the latter entered the room where the mixture was being made from unlabeled chemicals including some yellow powder, a yellow liquid, and a green liquid.

A Vietnamese worker said the mixture was said to keep the durians unspoiled for longer than normal, and to make them ripe all over.

Read more here:
Vietnamese durians smuggled, soaked in dodgy preservative