A notification received by a farmers’ group in Kaohsiung from a Chinese trade company suspending one shipment of wax apples was an isolated case and would have no effect on cross-strait trade in the fruit, Taiwan’s agricultural authorities said on Sunday.
The Liouguei Farmers’ Association in Kaohsiung’s Liouguei District (六龜) said that on Sunday it received a notification from its Chinese trade agent that a shipment of wax apples to China scheduled for next week had been suspended.
The notification came three days after China told Taiwan that it was suspending imports of its pineapples, starting yesterday.
Photo: CNA
Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) said that the decision of one Chinese trade agent does not affect cross-strait trade in wax apples.
If Taiwan or China decides to suspend trade of any agricultural produce, a bilateral agricultural trade agreement stipulates that a notification should immediately be sent to the nation in question, he said.
The council has received no such notification, he added.
Chen also urged local media to check their facts before filing sensationalist reports that could affect the prices of farm produce.
Wang Cheng-yi (王正一), acting director-general of the Kaohsiung City Government’s Agriculture Bureau, said that the suspension involves one Chinese trading agent and one fruit shipment.
The shipment was expected to contain about 300 to 400 cartons of wax apples, the bureau said.
The Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine said that the farmers’ association has exported 7,648 tonnes of wax apples since last year, all of which passed Chinese inspections.
Kaoshiung exported 1,331.5 tonnes of wax apples last year, with 99.5 percent going to China, the council said.
There would be reduced output this year due to fruit being damaged by cold weather, with the wax apple harvest expected to begin in the middle of next month, it said.
Kaohsiung produces about 5,700 tonnes of wax apples annually and is home to 407 hectares of wax apple orchards, with Liouguei accounting for about 344 hectares.
About 80 percent of Liouguei’s wax apples are sold domestically, while exports account for the remainder, which mainly go to China.
Wax apples are one of the five main fruits Taiwan exports to China. In Liouguei, a species of wax apple dubbed “honey wind bell” has been developed for export and has a production value of about NT$100 million (US$3.53 million) per year.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
RSS