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Smuggled Cashmere Seized in Xinjiang
Custom officials in this capital city of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region recently seized 170 kg of cashmere smuggled from Mongolia. The aim of the move is to cut off the inflow of animal by-products from the areas plagued by the hoof-and-mouth disease in neighboring Mongolia.
Cashmere has been China's traditional import, which is sold at a price of ranging from 200 yuan to 400 yuan per kg. To prevent the epidemic disease spreading to China, China's State Administration for Entry-Exit Inspection issued a circular, banning the inflow of livestock products from Mongolia.
However, smugglers continued to ship cashmere into Altay, in northern Xinjiang, by breaking big-batch imports into smaller parts. The custom officials uncovered three smuggled cases and confiscated 100,000-yuan worth of cashmere in May and June.
The hoof-and-mouth disease, a deadly disease affecting the livestock, has spread around in a southeastern province in Mongolia since early May. About 17,700 animals, mostly cattle, were found infected with the disease, which is highly contagious and fatal to cloven-hoofed animals such as cows and pigs but cannot be transmitted to humans.
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