A shipment of a hybrid variety of sugar apples grown by Taitung farmers is to be shipped to Brunei today, as local growers eye new markets following a Chinese import suspension, the Taitung County Agriculture Department said yesterday.
The 3,000km shipment of the locally grown fruit would be delivered to six retail stores in Brunei, the department said in a statement.
The estimated arrival date for the hybrid sugar apples is Monday next week, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Taitung County Government via CNA
The hybrid fruit, known as an atemoya, is a cross between the sugar apple and cherimoya.
In Taiwan, it is known as a sweeter variant of custard apples that resembles pineapples.
With Taiwan’s optimal climate, Taitung farmers have grown the hybrid for years to meet persistent domestic and Chinese demand.
The department said exporting atemoyas to Brunei was meant to relieve the plight of Taitung farmers in the wake of China’s suspension of some Taiwanese fruit imports over the past two years.
Taitung County Commissioner Yao Ching-ling (饒慶鈴) has sought out domestic channels and new international markets to help farmers, with Brunei the latest export destination in Southeast Asia after Singapore.
A fruit seller surnamed Kuo (郭) said that atemoyas were popular in Brunei because the closest fruit Bruneians have to the hybrid sugar apples — locally grown custard apples — tended to be more sour than their Taiwanese cousins.
Kuo said that some atemoyas had already been delivered by air to Brunei last month.
The batch that would leave Taiwan’s shores today is to be shipped by sea, which, if quality control is maintained, could be a way for Taiwanese atemoyas to enter more Southeast Asian markets, Kuo said.
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