Taiwanese pineapples are selling very well in Japan. That’s after Japan’s record high order of 6,000 tons of Taiwanese pineapples to help Taiwan deal with the loss of Chinese orders. China banned imports of Taiwanese pineapples on March 1.
Council of Agricultural Minister Chen Chi-chung and Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) Chairman James Huang held a press conference in Tokyo on Tuesday to introduce Taiwanese pineapples and pineapple products to Japan. Huang said that Taiwan’s pineapple farmers don’t use herbicides and hormones and that is the secret to their fine flesh.
Huang also said that Taiwan just got approval to sell their pineapples, bananas, mangoes and dragon fruit to Japan for the Olympics.
Japanese supermarket chain BELX said that fruit sales have grown 150% due to the popularity of Taiwan’s pineapples. They’ve been marketed as pineapples that have “edible cores”. Last season, BELX sold 7,000 crates (10 kg each) of Taiwanese pineapples, and they predict that they can sell over 20,000 crates this season.
Taiwan’s representative to Japan Frank Hsieh said that Chinese President Xi Jinping wanted to weaken Taiwanese farmers’ support for the Tsai Ing-wen administration by banning pineapple imports. But he did not succeed.
After the ban, Taiwanese consumers bought up the amount ordered the previous year by China in less than a week. Japan also purchased a record high of 6,000 tons of Taiwanese pineapples to support Taiwan during that crisis.