A total of 48,240 pears and a similar number of apples infected by the Cydia pomonella, popularly known as the apples and pears worm have been detected by the Panama Food Safety Authority (Aupsa).

The cargo was detected inside a container from Guangdong, a coastal province of southern China.

The container also held dried mushrooms, dried garlic, parsimony, white mushrooms, lotus root and other species for cooking.

" The apple worm that has been presented to us in a romantic and cheerful way in animated drawings and films, hides behind its smile a great threat to many national crops such as corn, " says a statement from the Authority

The note adds that the worm, in the real world, has the property of mutating into a butterfly, moving over long distances to destroy plants, says Aupsa’s s general administrator, Raúl Saucedo Alderete. Panama is free of this pest so far and with cases like this, to carry out an inspection is a risk and instead of proceeding to unload and destroy the merchandise in Panama, it is preferable to return it to its place of origin. All the foods of this shipment to which a definitive blockade was given, were going to be commercialized locally, especially based on the Christmas celebration.