Pineapple growers in Chinese mainland gain as Taiwan loses

Pineapple growers in the Chinese mainland are seeing thriving businesses, while farmers on the island of Taiwan are suffering great losses after imports from the island were halted by mainland authorities due to quarantine pests.

In the latest sign, the price of pineapples grown in the island of Taiwan has slumped to NT$ 16 ($ 0.57) per kilogram, a low level that could threaten Taiwan farmers’ incomes, according to media reports on Sunday.

In stark contrast, some pineapple farmers in the Chinese mainland reached by the Global Times said they were expecting good profits.

“The drop of pineapple prices in Taiwan may be caused by the export barriers,” Lu Weilong, sales manager of Hongxing Farm in Xuwen, South China’s Guangdong Province, told the Global Times on Sunday. Guangdong is a major pineapple producer in China.

On February 26, the General Administration of Customs issued a ban on pineapples from the island of Taiwan starting from March 1, citing the detection of quarantine pests.

The mainland has long been most important market for pineapples from the island. Taiwan sold 41,661 tons of fresh pineapples to the mainland in 2020, with a value of NT$ 1.49 billion, accounting for 91 percent of the island’s total pineapple exports, according to media reports.

Wang Kaiguo, a pineapple trader in Xuwen, told the Global Times that the import ban on Taiwan pineapples had little influence on the mainland’s market. “The market share of Taiwan pineapples remains too small,” said Wang.

On the other hand, due to low output affected by drought and cold waves in 2020, prices of mainland- grown pineapples have increased this year, helping farmers like Lu.

“Our current daily sales volume is 10 tons, half the scale of the hottest pineapple sales season,” said Lu.

Pineapple sales volume had surpassed 700,000 tons so far this year, a very high figure during this time of the year, a local official in Xuwen told the Global Times.

Wang Jianmin, a Taiwan affairs expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that the current low price of Taiwan pineapples is a result of the Chinese mainland’s import ban.

“Customs in both Japan and China had evidence to show that imported fruit such as bananas and pineapples from the island of Taiwan had quality issues. If Taiwan wants to benefit its farmers, more quarantine inspections should be undertaken before it exports local agricultural products,” he said.