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Japan shoppers dig deep for Taiwan pineapples as China wages fruit war

蘋果日報 2021/03/09 06:25


Japan’s shoppers have been snapping up Taiwan pineapples, paying twice as much as for those grown in other markets, after China late last month slapped an import ban on the tropical fruit from the self-governing island.
The infestations of hazardous pests cited by Chinese customs as the reason for their ban don’t appear to be deterring Japan’s hardy households, either.
A photo posted on the Facebook page of dentist Matsuda Yoshihisa last week pictured empty supermarket shelves that once bulged with Taiwan pineapples priced as 599 yen (US$5.50). Fruit from the Philippines, which cost half the price, was largely untouched.
That scene was no isolated incident. Japanese companies preordered more than 6,000 metric tons by March 4, according to the English-language media outlet Taiwan News. That shattered previous records, it said, adding that the preorders were a show of support for Taiwan.
Even if Pineapples were selling for 1,000 yen, Matsuda said on his Facebook page that he would still be willing to buy them. He later told Apple Daily Taiwan that he had served as a translator for Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen and other officials.
The dentist also praised Tsai for her ability to defend Taiwan from the Chinese Communist Party’s attempts at suppression, adding that Japanese citizens were “highly concerned” about China’s sudden import ban.
In Taipei, Tsai has drummed up support for local pineapple farmers. The economic affairs minister, Wang Mei-Hua, has said Beijing’s ban failed to comply with international trade rules.
“This is not the first time China has used agricultural exports to other countries as a political threat,” Reuters reported the island’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party as saying in a statement. Beijing is making use of the ban to pile economic pressure on Taiwan, it added.
The prohibition was purely an agricultural trade issue, said Cai Peihui, a National People’s Congress deputy from Taiwan, criticizing the Tsai administration for “demonizing” China’s policy toward the island.
The surge in purchases of Taiwanese pineapples has also taken place in Hong Kong, according to a fresh fruit wholesaler surnamed Yeung. He said he received about 1,000 boxes of Taiwanese pineapples on Monday, half the quantity he normally got, adding that future shipments had all been reserved.
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