Fruit growers selling pineapples overseas who engage in undercutting or other forms of unfair competition would lose access to Council of Agriculture (COA) subsidies, the council said on Saturday.
The agency has been working hard over the past year to find new markets for Taiwanese produce after farmers faced embargoes in China last year, it said.
It would implement new regulations to ensure Taiwanese produce can remain competitive in new markets, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Kaohsiung City Government Agriculture Bureau via CNA
The regulations would include requiring farmers to ship produce using cold-chain logistics to keep fruit at 16°C, requiring exporters to strictly adhere to fair competition practices and requiring compliance with the importing country’s pesticide residue regulations, it said.
Cold-chain shipping procedures would also require fruit to be placed on pallets rather than in boxes where temperature differences could cause core rot, it said.
Pineapples shipped overseas this year must be sold for at least NT$22 per kilogram, NT$1 higher than last year’s minimum price, it said.
The council has been offering an incentive program to help farmers transition to new markets, but access to that program is conditioned upon adherence to the regulations, it said.
“We had one pineapple producer last year who was undercutting the market in Japan,” it said. “The problem with such practices is that it might give consumers in other markets the impression that Taiwanese fruit is low quality,” the council said.
The agency said it would inspect shipments, and any exporter found using boxes originally used for shipments to China, exporting fruit with excessive pesticide residue or pests would be issued a warning.
Second-time offenders would lose their subsidies for a year, it said, adding that repeat offenders could lose their subsidies for five years.
Fruit exporter Chen Hsu-chu (陳旭初) on Saturday said that Taiwanese farmers should be aiming to have Taiwan associated with its pineapples, just like New Zealand is known for its kiwis.
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