Comments on: Communist garlic threatens Thai culture

By: Michael Turton

Michael Turton — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 09:18:13 +0000

LOL. Wonderful find! I follow garlic in Taiwan on my Taiwan blog. Taiwan imports lots of garlic from China — there’s an illegal garlic trade going back to the early 90s, run by gangsters. The same claims about local garlic are made here in Taiwan — just switch the two nation’s names. Here’s an article:

“Following a tip-off, police seized the haul in several warehouses in Yunlin, west Taiwan, and arrested several smugglers who will be charged for violating Taiwan’s ban on trading with China, several TV channels reported.

The businessmen bought the garlic at one yuan (20 US cents) per kilogram in China, and shipped them to Taiwan via North Korea.

As locally-grown garlic is in short supply ahead of Chinese New Year, with demand high as lots of garlic is used in cooking during the week-long festival, the smuggling ring hoped to reap profits by selling the Chinese garlic at 80 Taiwan dollars ($2.5) per kilo.

Taiwanese also like eating raw garlic when they eat noodles, dumplings or other dishes.

New Year’s Eve is on February 6.

The smugglers could also be charged with fraud because they planned to pass off the Chinese garlic as Taiwanese, although Taiwan garlic is considered of better quality than Chinese garlic.

When police raided the warehouses, the smugglers claimed the garlic came from North Korea.

“Chinese garlic is not as spicy and tasty as Taiwan garlic. So the experts knew right away it was Chinese garlic,” a police officer said.

Police have destroyed the 27 tons of Chinese garlic.”

By: worldculturenet.com » Culture Notes Mar. 6, ‘08

worldculturenet.com » Culture Notes Mar. 6, ‘08 — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:54:04 +0000

[...] Thai food culture threatened by garlic from China [...]

By: Bangkok Pundit

Bangkok Pundit — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:38:25 +0000

I have been meaning to blog on this simply as this author has written previous articles just quoting FTAWatch talking points of FTAs kill farmers mantra

If Thai garlic is so good – “Thai garlic is better in taste and medicinal properties, such as preventing cancer. Consumers want to buy Thai garlic” – why can’t it command a premium price?

And if it is so good, why is it “difficult for consumers to tell the difference” between imported garlic and Thai garlic?

It would get a premium price if consumers thought it was so much better. Second, if Thai garlic makes up to two-thirds of the market exactly, how difficult can it be to find? How exactly do consumers have less choices when they now can not only buy Thai garlic, but also Chinese garlic?

At a time when there are concerns about higher food prices, it is interesting for FTAWatch to be so concerned about cheaper food options.

By: Lleij Samuel Schwartz

Lleij Samuel Schwartz — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 04:55:03 +0000

Oh dear, is this a sign that a variation of nihonjinron is developing in Thai society? What's next, the Thai Ministry of Agriculture justifying a ban on U.S. beef imports by claiming that Thai intestines are longer than Westerners' intestines?