HK$48,430 for roasted pork lunchbox: Taiwan fines passenger from Hong Kong for bringing in banned meat

A customs detector dog sniffed out the contraband and alerted its handlers. The visitor, said to be a man, was fined NT$200,000 on the spot for the undeclared pork.

But as he was unable to pay the penalty immediately, he was deported and instructed to settle the fine before entering Taiwan again, the media reports said.

Taiwanese authorities have imposed strict controls on the import of pork from areas where cases of African swine fever have been detected since 2018.

The fine for a first offence is NT$200,000, increasing to NT$1 million for subsequent transgressions.