Taiwanese bananas are expected to enter the market in Shanghai next week at an estimated price of four yuan (US$0.50) per kilogram, an executive of a Shanghai fruit trading company said yesterday.
A shipment of 72 tonnes of bananas from Taiwan arrived in Shanghai Sunday and after passing through customs examinations and quarantine, the fruit will be likely available in one week after, the executive said.
He said the bananas will be sold at more than 2 yuan per catty -- a weight measure used in China that is approximately equal to half a kilogram -- double the price of bananas grown in Nanhai, southern China, and equivalent to the price for bananas from the Philippines and Ecuador.
The Taiwan banana export was part of an agreement reached Oct. 22 between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to help Taiwanese farmers facing a glut in the local market.
Banana prices in Taiwan have fallen over the past weeks as a result of overproduction, with wholesale prices dropping to below NT$5 (US$0.15) per kilogram.
In a KMT-CCP meeting in the Chinese city of Xiamen, the CCP agreed to buy up to 2,000 tonnes of Taiwan's excess banana supply at NT$10 per kilogram.
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