Taiwanese mangoes have strong potential for sales growth in the Japanese market because of their quality, Tainan County Commissioner Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智) said yesterday.
Su, who last week returned from a trip to Japan to promote domestic mangoes, said yesterday that his recent investigation into Japanese markets suggests that Taiwanese mangoes have great potential there.
According to Su, promotional exhibitions held in Tokyo and Osaka early this month attracted hundreds of dealers, who responded positively to the Irwin variety of Taiwanese mango.
PHOTO: SHAO HSIN-JIE, TAIPEI TIMES
Su said that recently completed steam sterilization facilities in Tainan County will help ensure the quality of domestic fruit.
"Our mango consignments exported to Japan will all be accompanied by a completed sanitary certificate. In addition to the quality [control], we also have to ensure the quantity and that the packaging is well-designed," Su said.
Su said he found that the price of a mango from Mexico or Taiwan sold in ordinary supermarkets was only about NT$172, while that of a Japanese mango sold in a top-end department store fetched NT$1,056.
Given that, Taiwan should try to promote its mangoes into Japan's high-spending market, Su said.
Mangoes were introduced to Taiwan by the Dutch. In 1954, Taiwanese farmers began to grow foreign varieties that were introduced from the US by the government. Among them, the Irwin variety has become the most popular.
Last year, Tainan County exported 501 tonnes of Irwin mangoes to Japan, valued at US$2 million. This year, the county government hopes to triple the amount it exports to Japan.
Su said that focusing on exporting Taiwanese fruit to China, which recently promised to exempt 15 types of Taiwanese agricultural products from tariffs, was not a good idea.
"Quality Taiwanese fruit and other agricultural products deserve to be promoted in advanced countries that consume a large amount of quality products, rather than developing countries," Su said.
Meanwhile, representatives of opposition parties, including the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party (PFP) visited the Council of Agriculture (COA) yesterday, to urge council officials to facilitate exporting Taiwanese agricultural products to China.
Hu Fu-Hsiung (胡富雄), deputy minister of the council, said that the semi-official Taiwan External Trade and Development Council (TAITRA) had been designated by the government as the only agency to deal with fruit exports to China. Hu said the designation could ensure more transparent agricultural trade with China.
"In the future, bilateral negotiations on related issues, such as tariffs, quarantines, examination, and customs formalities, will be arranged by TAITRA, which will be assisted by agriculture experts, the COA and the Mainland Affairs Council," Hu said.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai