Swedish bureaucrats force tuna fish on Asian detour

An 11 tonne cargo of tuna fish forced to make a return journey to Thailand because of faulty paperwork has now completed its voyage back to Sweden.

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The cargo of tuna fish originally landed at Gothenburg harbour in June. But as the paperwork was not completed correctly health and safety bureaucrats left the importer with a tough choice - destroy the valuable cargo or send it on a return journey to south-east Asia.

Matkompaniet, a food firm based in Borås in western Sweden, chose the latter course of action, and after an epic voyage lasting several months the cargo has now returned to Swedish shores.

"We don't know whether to laugh or cry," Tommy Blomqvist at Matkompaniet said in the face of regulatory intransigence in June.

The firm now hopes that steps can be taken to prevent any future recurrence.

"The regulations forced the National Food Administration to do this. But we have also received indication that the rules could be eased so that it will be easier to correct paperwork errors that have been made," Pete Karlsson at the firm told local news website BT.se on Thursday.