4 ms·
German living in Switzerland here - I would dare say meat is one of the most commonly smuggled items into Switzerland. The price of meat here is discouragingly
by ThePadawan 4y ago
German living in Switzerland here - I would dare say meat is one of the most commonly smuggled items into Switzerland.
The price of meat here is discouragingly high (IMO rightly so), and incredibly cheap in neighboring Germany.
The duty-free limit is also incredibly low (1kg per person and day), similar to the amount of spirits (1L per), and the customs you pay after hefty.
- nibbleshifter 4y agoA lot of the Swiss I know do their grocery shopping for meat and some alcohols in Germany. The statistical likelihood of being stopped is slim enough that its not even considered "smuggling".
- saiya-jin 4y agoThe problem is, Germany (or France for Romandie and Italy for Ticino) is EU - unless you look at labels closely, that cheap meat is probably sourced from the eastern countries like Poland which have truly abysmal record on meat quality and safety (ie using salt for roads for meat/food and distributing it also in surrounding countries). If its from Germany and cheap, be assured the lowest allowed standards were adhered to (or not). Swiss have mostly higher safety standards than EU, plus much higher wages. Thus the prices. As for smuggling - I do it too... but it depends which border crossing you use. On some, chances for search are maybe 20-30%. Way too high risk to save maybe 100-200 chf and risk a much higher fine. On some crossings I know nearby to France, practically 0 (but even at those, I have sworn border cops are never there till I saw them once in 10 years...)
- nibbleshifter 4y agoOh aye, I remember the supermarket meat quality while living in Germany being variable. Where I live now (still EU) the origin and various other traceability information has to be available, and for some reason meat quality is far higher.