For about the last ten years in Ireland all the Garlic which could be purchased was nasty, small, dry bitter little heads. When I brought this up with the shop where I was a consultant in Waterford I was told that it was the only type available in Ireland and came from China.

Every time I went to France after that I bought a string of Garlic – large sweet juicy cloves flushed with pink which melted in the cooking and I know that quite a lot of Irish travellers have been prepared to suffer from garlic scented underwear for some time as they sacrificed some of their Ryanair allowance on a string of the “Stinking Rose”.

I had a fellow Irish restaurateur staying a few years ago and she, having a minister of state dine in her restaurant, bearded him about the Chinese monopoly of the garlic trade.
It was a trade agreement, he informed her, and the Chinese garlic imports were more than balanced by the Irish exports to that country.

From what I read in the IT this morning The Great Garlic Scam has now hit the headlines in Ireland as an Irish food importer has been jailed for six years for smuggling Chinese garlic into the country disguised as apples.
Chinese garlic, it transpires attracts a tax of 232% making it roughly 24 times higher than the tax on other fruit and veg.
The convicted importer owed €1.6million (sic) on unpaid garlic tax which he would not or could not pay.

What an appalling mess.

One part of me applauds that someone who flooded the country with such revolting garlic over such a long time should be made to suffer.
The other part wonders if he is being sacrificed to maintain an unworkable trade agreement which showed total contempt for the Irish consumer.