Taiwan had exported 18,222 tonnes of pineapples this year as of Wednesday, with 61.9 percent sold to Japan, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday, adding that South Korea and the US are also new markets for the fruit.
After China suspended imports of Taiwanese pineapples from March, the council has worked to expand other export channels.
It aims to export 30,000 tonnes of pineapples this year, Department of International Affairs Director Lin Chia-jung (林家榮) said.
Photo: Hsieh Chieh-yu, Taipei Times
As of Wednesday, 18,222 tonnes of pineapples had been exported, including 11,286 tonnes (61.9 percent) sold to Japan, which exceeds the total sold to the country in the past decade, council data showed.
The amount exported to Japan is expected to continue rising, Lin said.
Japanese produce supplier Farmind last month purchased 3,000 tonnes of Taiwanese pineapples and sent fruit slices to supermarkets and convenience stores across the country, he said.
Meanwhile, the council is re-entering the South Korean market after a hiatus of a few years, he said.
South Korea used to import pineapples from the Philippines and Indonesia, but recently Seoul has shown a favorable response to Taiwanese pineapples, Lin said.
The council would work with some businesses to promote the fruit in South Korea, a prioritized market next year, he added.
As Taiwanese golden diamond pineapples are not suitable for long-distance transportation, the council would promote a mango-pineapple hybrid to countries farther away, Lin said, adding that the hybrid would be sold to Japan as well.
Some researchers have developed techniques to keep frozen golden diamond pineapples fresh even after they are defrosted, a source familiar with the matter said.
Such techniques would allow frozen golden diamond pineapples to be sold to the US next year, which would be another boon for exports, the person said.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS