A merchant in Hong Kong said he ordered Taiwanese pineapples enough to fill a whole shipping container, to support the self-governing island after mainland China slapped an import ban on the fruit that took effect on Monday.

The merchant, surnamed Yeung from the online store Dr Fruits, told Apple Daily that he had placed an order for about 20 tonnes of the fruit because of the many enquiries from Hong Kong citizens, some of whom paid in advance.

Another fruit store boss, surnamed Leung, said that he was expecting about 6.7 tonnes of Taiwanese pineapples to arrive in Hong Kong on Thursday.

Both businesses and consumers in and outside Taiwan are rallying to the island’s agricultural industry, in a display of solidarity that also shows the sudden decision by the Beijing authorities has infuriated not only the Taiwanese but also people around the world.

Taiwanese farmers had been exporting more than 90% of their pineapples to mainland China, before Beijing announced its ban last Friday, citing “harmful pests” found in pineapples from across the strait.

In Taiwan, people were supportive of their local farmers and let their actions speak for them.

Entertainment artist Show Lo flaunted 200 boxes of pineapples he had bought. A wine and tobacco company this week announced procuring 50 tonnes for staff and developing a new product using the home-grown fruit as an ingredient. The company planned to roll out a pineapple wine in April and predicted that it would use up more than 100 tonnes of pineapples this year.

The Taipei government also urged its people to buy and eat more of the locally produced fruit. On Sunday, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen visited agricultural workers in Kaohsiung city, promising “not to let farmers’ income drop and to maintain stable earnings.”

Then on Tuesday, Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture announced that local farmers had received orders for 41,687 tonnes, achieving 80% of its target of 50,000 tonnes.

Orders within Taiwan had topped 30,000 tonnes, while Japan would likely buy 3,500 tonnes, an increase of 63% from last year, according to council official Chen Chi-chung. Traders were also eyeing the markets of Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Meanwhile, farmers of wax apples were relieved when two mainland Chinese trading companies came to their rescue, after another mainland merchant scrapped an order for 2,100 kilograms of Taiwanese wax apples that was to be sent to China on Wednesday.

The cancelation had got fruit farmers worried that wax apples might be the next to be banned from mainland China. Fortunately, two other companies contacted the Taiwanese industry on their own and offered to buy the produce that had been rejected at the last minute.

The industry also received an order from Hong Kong and eventually managed to sell the whole lot of wax apples.

Click here for Chinese version

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play