Agriculture-dependent counties headed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) commissioners, including Yunlin, Hualien and Taitung, yesterday urged the central government to provide practical policies to resolve the issue of Chinese bans on Taiwanese agriculture products.
KMT Legislator Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) said China has since September last year imposed bans on Taiwanese pineapples, custard apples, wax apples and groupers, and a visit by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi early this month led to further bans on Taiwanese citrus fruits, largehead hairtails and frozen Japanese horse mackerels.
Yunlin County Commissioner Chang Li-shan (張麗善) urged President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration to resolve Taiwan’s inability to export the products to China, saying the situation has affected the local market and made farmers anxious.
Photo: Wang Chien-hao and Chen Cheng-yu, Taipei Times
Hualien County Commissioner Hsu Chen-wei (徐榛蔚) said the county’s pomelo farmers have suffered as well.
Hualien annually provides 2,500 tonnes out of the total of up to 5,000 tonnes of pomelos exported to China in the past few years, but worsening cross-strait relations have forced farmers to sell the fruit in Taiwan.
Farmers’ livelihoods are affected by canceled orders or retailers buying at lower-than-average prices, Hsu said.
The Tsai administration has been encouraging produce and fish exports, but it has not said which markets beside China Taiwan could export to, Taitung County Commissioner Rao Ching-ling (饒慶鈴) said.
Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) said the council had initiated concrete measures to balance the production and sale of local produce.
The council is also seeking new markets for Taiwanese exports in light of the Chinese bans, he said.
More than 18,000 tonnes of Taiwanese pineapples were exported to Japan last year, while prices for pineapples have exceeded 2020 levels, he said, adding that an average pineapple harvested this year would sell for about NT$2 more than one harvested last year.
He said the grouper import ban had little effect on sales, showing that Taiwan’s measures are effective.
In 2015, 85 percent of Taiwanese fruits and produce were exported to China, but only 41 percent were shipped to China last year and only 3 percent this year, Chen said, adding that the council has been working hard to scale down Taiwan’s dependence on a single market.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times
RSS