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.

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