Taiwan Government pushing banana sales, eying China market

The Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture (COA) said Saturday that a total of 800 tons of bananas will be shipped to Beijing and Shanghai by the end of June -- the first time the fruit is being sold to Chinese markets since 2006.
According to the council's Agriculture and Food Agency, the first batch of 96 tons of bananas was shipped to China earlier this week, with exporters buying at NT$15 per kilogram, compared with NT$12 last week.
The average wholesale price of bananas was NT$14.6 per kilogram on Friday, down nearly 40 percent from the same time last year, according to the agency's data.
Hsu Han-ching, chief secretary of the agency, said the quality of bananas shipped to China will be as high as those shipped to Japan.
"We hope to introduce our high quality bananas to China, where the Philippines has been China's main source of banana imports, " Hsu said.
Opposition Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Pan Meng-an urged the government at a press conference Thursday to take action to boost sales of the fruit, saying that banana exports fell about 10 percent year-on-year in the first four months of this year.
So far this year, 4,927 tons of bananas have been exported to Japan, the council said in press release.
Hsu attributed this year's lower price for bananas to less demand from Japanese markets and increasing competition from juicy summer fruits such as watermelons and pineapples.
To prevent banana prices from falling further, the COA said that it will help sell 3,000 tons of green bananas to local food processing companies at NT$5 per kilogram.
The council is also encouraging the military and prisons to increase their consumption of bananas, and it has held promotional events to increase sales to those institutions.