OAKLAND — Over 1 million pounds of soybeans and 88,000 pounds of rice were stopped at the Port of Oakland and sent back to India after agriculture inspectors found a destructive pest known as the Khapra beetle in the shipment.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection found the beetles in 1.2 million pounds of the beans and the shipment of rice inside “multiple shipping containers,” said customs spokesman Frank Falcon.
The shipment was discovered and returned in November, he said.
“We try to keep these things from coming into the country because once they get into your dried cereals, beans and rice, they multiply and infest and are very hard to eradicate,” Falcon said. —The beetle is one of the world’s most destructive pests, so we’re doing what we can to keep it out of the country.”
Falcon did not know where the shipment was headed inside the U.S.
According to the customs office, the Khapra beetle can survive for long periods without food or water and are resistant to many insecticides.
