The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would use its online platforms to help promote sales of domestic pineapples, KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said yesterday, as a Chinese ban on imports of the fruit from Taiwan took effect.
China’s suspension of pineapple imports from the nation has had a serious effect on the domestic pineapple industry since it was announced on Friday, Chiang said while meeting pineapple growers in Tainan.
Besides pineapples, many other local fruits, such as wax apples, are exported to China, he said.
Photo: CNA
“Taiwan’s fruits have always been very high-quality, and we certainly hope to sell them to more countries,” he said.
However, he added that unlike exports of electronic products, fruit exports are restricted by factors such as their freshness, making the Chinese market important for domestic farmers.
He urged Taipei and Beijing to discuss technical and inspection-related issues, and proposed that inspections be performed in batches, with only the problematic imports returned, adding that this would mitigate the losses experienced by pineapple growers.
Chiang said he has asked the 14 KMT mayors and county commissioners to join forces to help support domestic pineapple growers and other farmers with any available resources.
The KMT would also use its online platforms to help domestic growers sell pineapples, he said.
The Democratic Progressive Party had promised farmers that it would help them develop new markets besides China, Chiang said, urging the government to fulfill its pledge.
Encouraging Taiwanese to consume domestic pineapples is a short-term fix, KMT Legislator Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) wrote on Facebook yesterday, adding that the government cannot encourage people to eat every food product that China bans.
Lin also urged Beijing to enter discussions with Taipei to find solutions to pineapple export-related issues, saying that negotiations between the US and China took place even amid their trade dispute.
“Optimistically, perhaps this is an opportunity to ease tensions between the two sides” of the Taiwan Strait, Lin wrote.
Former KMT chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) on Sunday wrote on Facebook that while the government and public should support local growers by purchasing pineapples, he wondered how long the approach could last.
“This time it is pineapples. Next time will it be mangoes? Sugar apples? Wax apples?” he wrote.
He said that while President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has been promoting the New Southbound Policy since it took office in 2016, the nation’s economic and trade dependence on China has grown instead of falling.
The government owes fruit farmers an apology, and the public an explanation, he said.
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is