A refrigerated container carrying 1,000 cartons of smuggled fruit weighing 15.78 tons was confiscated in the southern Hormozgan Province. Mehdi Rezaie, the director General of Shahid Bahonar Customs put the value of the seizure at 1.02 billion rials ($29,000), IRNA reported. As decreed by the Agriculture Ministry about four years ago, imports of all types of fruits other than bananas, pineapple, coconut and mangoes are officially banned in support of local producers, as domestic production is sufficient to meet demand at home. The state news agency did not specify what the contraband fruit was or if the smugglers had been arrested.
