Costco was found to be selling pure Taiwanese tea, which was actually mixed with 90% Vietnamese tea.

(file photo)

[Reporter Huang Jialin / Kaohsiung Report] The well-known store Costco put a "Shanlinxi Alpine Oolong Tea" on the shelves last year, claiming that the origin is Taiwan, but after a random inspection by the New Taipei City Health Bureau, it was found that the tea was mixed with the ratio of 1:10. A large amount of Vietnamese tea was transferred to the prosecutors for investigation. The prosecutors found out that the source of the tea was a tea factory in Nantou. The person in charge of the tea factory surnamed Xu also confessed to the crime and cooperated with the Nantou Health Bureau to destroy the batch of tea. Prosecute, but must pay 700,000 yuan to the public treasury.

The prosecutor pointed out that on September 23 last year, the Taipei Municipal Health Bureau went to the Costco Beitou store for a random test of "Shanlinxi Alpine Oolong Tea", and brought back 2 pieces of tea leaves and sent them to the Tea Industry Improvement Field of the Agricultural Committee of the Executive Yuan for inspection. After the mass spectrometer detection, it was found that "overseas tea" in the tea cans accounted for as high as 90%.

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After the North City Health Bureau transferred the case to the procurator for investigation, the procurator found out that Costco purchased the tea product from a tea merchant in Kaohsiung in April last year. It had to be resold to Costco. At that time, the two parties had signed an agreement to purchase "pure" Taiwanese tea, but they did not know that the tea was mixed with foreign tea.

The prosecutor followed the line and summoned the person in charge of the Nantou Tea Factory surnamed Xu to the case. Xu confessed to the crime, arguing that Taiwan tea was out of stock at the time. The proportion of Vietnamese tea is 1:10, and the blended tea is handed over to an unsuspecting trader for shipment to Costco.

Prosecutors found that Costco sold the "Shanlinxi Alpine Oolong Tea" at a price of 879 yuan per kilogram, but the tea imported by the person in charge surnamed Xu from Vietnam was only 73 yuan per kilogram, and the price difference was as high as 11 times. The police estimated that the person in charge surnamed Xu earned at least more than 110,000 yuan from the order; the male procurator considered that Xu Nan had no previous criminal record and had a good attitude after the crime. 700,000 yuan must be paid to the public treasury.