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- A South African man arrived in America and said he had something to declare.
- Customs agents found a bit under 40kg of biltong in his luggage.
- He "requested" that he be allowed to keep it – given that it is worth some R37 000.
- The US authorities were unsympathetic, and sent the biltong for destruction by steam sterilisation.
The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency has released details of the travails of a South African traveller who sought to take a few snacks into America – and ended up as a lesson in biosecurity.
The unidentified man arrived at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, a major hub also serving states such as Colorado and Arizona, and told border agents he had beef biltong to declare.
Had he not said anything, he may have walked out of the airport without any further trouble – or, if caught, he could have faced detention and a relatively small fine, with little prospect of criminal sanctions that are theoretically possible.
Instead, a formal inspection swung into action, with five of his bags x-rayed for organic content. That revealed what the border agency described as "83 pounds of beef biltong", or just about 38kg.
The agency said some of the beef was "curried", likely an American misunderstanding of the function of chilli in biltong, and a photo it released seems to show the haul included droëwors. But the details did not matter. Nor did the value.
"The passenger requested that the meat not be seized because it cost over $2 000", the equivalent of some R37 000, said the customs agency, in a description that probably does not capture the full flavour of the interaction.
That valuation is high in South Africa, with a mass-retail upper rate of between R600 and R700 per kg for biltong, but is conservative for the USA, where biltong sells for closer to R2 000 per kg.
Agents "informed him that cured and dried beef from South Africa was restricted due to animal diseases, including Foot and Mouth Disease, and it would be seized and destroyed via steam sterilisation."
Various airports destroy vast quantities of seized food in such fashion regularly, though most of it is far less valuable than genuine South African biltong.
The Customs and Border Protection agency told the story of this shipment to reinforce that it will not allow passengers to carry even vacuum-packed meat into the USA.
"Our nation's food supply is constantly at risk to diseases not known to occur in the United States," Augustine Moore, area port director for Minneapolis, said in a statement. "This interception highlights the vigilance and dedication that our CBP Agriculture Specialists demonstrate, daily. They ensure that the United States is safe from harmful diseases that could affect our food supply."
The CPB did not describe the mental state of the South African as he left.
This article was corrected after publication to refer to the upper rate – rater than the previous "going rate" – of biltong at retailers, because our readers are smarter shoppers than we are.
