CONSTANZA.- The Constanza Valley Garlic Producers Association is on the verge of losing more than 2,500 tons of the crop for lack of a market, as the authorities have yet to detain the spice smuggled across Haiti’s border, and which they say originates in China.

The farmers said despite the controls at the border, the trucks and even containers with garlic reach the markets at Santiago and Santo Domingo, creating an unfair competition.

The garlic producers said they owe the banks more than RD$1.0 billion, and would go bankrupt if they don’t sell the harvest.

Miguel Quezada, head of the Constanza vegetable growers association said powerful people are behind the smuggling, because a truck can pass through six checkpoints without the contraband being uncovered. He did not identify those people. “We’ve known people who place peppers in the sacks where they carry the garlic, others place sand but if the guard does his duty and does his job he can realize what they really carry.”