The EU’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) has approved Taiwan’s application to export mangoes and guavas to all 27 EU member states following a years-long suspension due to tightened regulations, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday.
As Taiwan is listed as a region that has endemic quarantine pests including Oriental fruit flies and melon flies, fruit fly host fruit, such as mangoes and guavas, were banned from being directly exported to EU countries, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency Deputy Director-General Du Li-hua (杜麗華) said.
Following multiple submissions of an application to resume exporting the fruits to Europe, the ministry last year submitted another application and provided more documentation related to exports to Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the US to substantiate Taiwan’s quarantine capabilities, she said.
Photo: Tsai Tsung-hsien, Taipei Times
For example, mangoes undergoing at least 30 minutes of steam heating at 46.5?C were confirmed to have no living larval eggs or pupae left, Du said.
The agency would continue to explore different quarantine techniques and compile documents to meet the EU’s quarantine regulations of other fruit, such as tangerines, the importation application of which has yet to be approved due to the lack of proof that citrus canker can be prevented from spreading, she said.
The agency has been dedicated to developing international high-end markets for Taiwanese agricultural products, Du said.
“The approval from the DG SANTE to export mangoes and guavas to 27 EU member states marked a significant achievement, as Europe has great market potential, although most European countries currently import fruit mainly from central and southern America,” she said.
Taiwan’s mangoes have been granted access to Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia, while its guavas are available in the US, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Palau, the ministry said.
Precision marketing and premium product positioning would be adopted to enhance the market identification of Taiwanese fruit and processed agricultural or fishery products in European markets, it said.
Export incentives would be set up to support agricultural workers and traders to organize promotional events for Taiwanese agricultural products jointly with sales channels such as department stores or supermarkets based in Europe, the ministry said.
The ministry would assist exporters in building overseas distribution networks in EU countries by integrating resources from overseas missions and Taiwanese chambers of commerce, as well as breaking into local consumer markets by leveraging sports or cultural events held in Europe to market Taiwanese agricultural and fishery products, it added.
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