Overseas Taiwanese living in the United States, Australia and Vietnam want to buy Taiwan’s pineapples and pineapple products. That’s the word from the Overseas Community Affairs Council on Tuesday.
Taiwan faces the current challenge of finding new export markets after China began a ban on pineapple exports on March 1. Exports account for only 10 percent of pineapple sales in Taiwan but China accounts for 95% of Taiwan’s pineapple exports.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said the temporary ban is due to pests discovered in shipments. But Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture says that it has already dealt with the reports of pests in pineapples. It also says there have been no such reports since China instituted new import rules last October. Council data shows that Taiwan has exported 6,200 batches of pineapples to China since last year, but China only reported finding insects among the fruit 13 times. Data showed that 99.79 percent of the pineapples sent to China passed customs testing.
At the legislature on Tuesday, Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) Minister Tung Chen-yuan said that overseas Taiwanese are saying they would like to purchase Taiwan’s pineapples, even if it means paying air shipment fees.
Tung said he was touched by the support of overseas Taiwanese at this time. The council is now looking into import and customs regulations in various countries. In 2017, Australia began welcoming the import of pineapples from Taiwan.
As some countries do not allow the import of fresh pineapples, Tung said it would be easier for overseas Taiwanese to buy pineapple food products, which they have also expressed interest in doing.
Also at the legislature on Tuesday, Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said though they have a fixed supplier for domestic produce, the military would be happy to support any government policy to use pineapples.