Ten tonnes of smuggled onions burned in Kanchanaburi

Soldiers prepare to burn 10 tonnes of smuggled onions in Sangkhla district, Kanchanaburi, on Sunday. (Photo by Piyarach Chongcharoen)

KANCHABURI: Soldiers from the Surasee Task Force and customs officials from Sangkhla Buri district of this western border province on Sunday oversaw the burning of 10,800 kilogrammes of smuggled onions.

The onions were seized on July 5 while being smuggled into the country from Myanmar.

The destruction of the illicit onions was carried out at the garbage dump of Tambon Wangka Municipality near Phra Chedi Sam Ong village in Sangkhla Buri district.

Officials said the onions were smuggled into the country without going through a pest checkpoint to prevent fungi from spreading into the environment and farmland in the country. Food cooked with onions carrying fungi may cause consumers to develop liver cancer, they said.

Some traders have imported onions from neighbouring countries because the price of onions produced domestically is soaring. Onions from Myanmar are smuggled through natural border crossings to avoid the authorities, they said.



