Premier Su Tseng-chang on Thursday received a Council of Agriculture (COA) briefing on Taiwan's fruit exports situation. Faced with China's import bans on certain fruits from Taiwan, the government is developing and diversifying more fruit markets through a three-pronged strategy of overseas sales, domestic sales and fruit processing. Enhancing Taiwan's fruit export competitiveness will reduce the risk of reliance on a single market.
Confronted with China's import bans, the government is vigorously developing a wider range of fruit markets. Thanks to the collective support of farmers, farmer groups, exporters, fruit processers, foreign sales outlets, and domestic and foreign consumers, the average production site price of pineapples this year rose above the average price of the past two years. In the first eight months of 2021, pineapple export volumes to markets other than China grew by a remarkable 560 percent compared with the same period of 2020. Exports to Japan alone grew 742 percent, almost equal the total volume exported to Japan over the past 20 years.
In addition to measures targeting exports, domestic sales, and processed goods, Taiwan's fruit growers need to improve their own operations to get at the root of the problem, said Premier Su. Improvements include quarantine processing and cold-chain technology, and clear labelling with place of origin and contents of packaging. Familiarity with the inspection standards of nations around the world is also important to competing globally.
That China has chosen to apply pressure through Taiwan's agriculture products shows that the nation can't put all its eggs in one basket and rely solely on the mainland, the premier said. Other markets have been aggressively developed, and Taiwan has seen victories in Japan, the U.S. and South Korea.
Taiwan-grown fruit can certainly compete in the global marketplace, said Premier Su. He instructed the COA and responsible foreign representative offices to cooperate in helping Taiwan's farmers to develop and expand a diverse range of overseas markets.