About 10 tonnes of Taiwan-grown bananas are to be exported to Japan’s Ibaraki Prefecture to enrich school lunches for 68,000 elementary-school students, Deputy Minister of Agriculture Hu Jong-i (胡忠一) said yesterday.
Taiwanese bananas began to be exported to the prefecture since the Agriculture and Food Agency and the prefecture’s Kasama City signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on diet and cultural exchanges and developments on July 24, 2019, he said.
Taiwan-grown pineapples were also exported to the prefecture in May and served to 33,766 schoolchildren, while mangoes — of which production was low this year due to typhoons — were supplied in July and incorporated into school lunches for 7,572 students, Hu said.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Agriculture
Representative Taiwan Office of Kasama City Director Yuki Tsuboi said Taiwanese bananas would be supplied to 223 middle and elementary schools across 18 administrative areas in the prefecture.
Such bilateral exchanges of agricultural products would help children in Japan build a more comprehensive international perspective and understanding of different cultures, he said.
Banana Strategic Alliance convener Chiu Chu-ying (邱祝櫻) said Taiwanese bananas had a big market share in Japan at 80 percent in the 1950s and 1960s, although the proportion decreased after the 1960s due to industrialization and decreased planting area.
About 15,000 hectares of bananas are planted in Taiwan, with an annual production of 320,000 tonnes, she said.
While bananas imported from Ecuador and the Philippines account for the bulk of the banana market of Japan, those from other Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia are also being poured into the market at low prices, Chiu said.
Taiwanese bananas in Japan are priced at about ￥398 (US$2.58) for a bunch of three, while those grown in the Philippines and Cambodia are ￥208 and ￥108 respectively, she said.
Citing his encounter with an elderly Japanese man who bought Taiwanese bananas at a department store in Tokyo more than 30 years ago while studying in Japan, Hu said bananas grown in Taiwan bear significance for older generations of Japanese.
The man chose bananas grown in Taiwan over those that were cheaper and imported from other countries, he said.
He was deployed at the Port of Kaohsiung during World War II and retreated to Kaohsiung’s Cishan District (旗山) when the US bombarded the port, Hu said.
They were starving when local Taiwanese gave them bananas and saved their lives, Hu said, citing the man as saying that he ate half a Taiwanese banana for breakfast every day.
Older Japanese like that man have an affection for Taiwan-grown bananas, but younger generations do not, and would choose cheaper bananas, despite their inferior fragrance and mouthfeel due to shorter growth periods, he said, adding that the MOU was signed to promote Taiwanese bananas to younger Japanese.
Taiwan exports more than 30 different fruits, with 11 of them supplied to Japan, Hu said, adding that red dragonfruit and pomeloes are expected to join exports to Japan next year.
Naka Mayor Hikaru Masaki, along with two students of Daiichi Junior High School, in a prerecorded video expressed excitement about the arrival of Taiwanese bananas at their lunch tables on Thursday.
“We hope the friendship between Japan and Taiwan would be deepened through Taiwan-grown bananas,” a student said.
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