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COA aims at kumquats

A Pingtung Citrus Producers’ Cooperative member displays packs of a newly developed fruit juice drink containing slices of round kumquat on Sept. 15 last year. PHOTO: CNA

Taiwan does not allow imports of fresh or preserved kumquats from China and government agencies will clamp down on the smuggling of such products into the country, the Council of Agriculture said yesterday.

The council’s International Affairs Department Director-General Chang Shu-hsien (張淑賢) said Taiwan only allowed a small amount of fresh kumquats from Japan and preserved kumquats from some southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and Vietnam to be sold on the domestic market.

Chang made the statements in the wake of recent media reports that substandard Chinese kumquats were being sold in Taiwan with their place of origin labeled as Ilan County.

Chang said about 300 hectares of land in Taiwan were used to grow kumquats, yielding about 4,000 tonnes of the fruit per year. Ilan County accounts for 90 percent of the production, with the peak harvest season being from December to February.

Twenty percent of the yield is distributed to retail markets, while 80 percent is used to make preserved snacks, she said.

Although the harvesting period for the fruit this year has almost ended, she said, council officials would continue monitoring retail prices on the domestic market to help guarantee local farmers’ profits.

The price of fresh kumquats in Taipei’s fruit and vegetable wholesale markets rose from NT$25.1 per kilogram in 2005 to NT$39.3 per kilogram on average in recent months.
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