Taiwan: Taipei counting on Chinese taste for bananas

To resolve the recent imbalance between production and marketing of Taiwanese bananas, the Council of Agriculture (COA) is seeking more help from the Chinese market. Between January and April, however, China purchased less than 2 tonnes of bananas. It bought 21.5 tonnes last year and none in 2008.
This stands in contrast with Japan s steady, long-term purchases of Taiwanese bananas. It purchased 8,255 tonnes in 2008, 7,983 tonnes last year, and almost 2,994 tonnes between January and April this year.
Since President Ma Ying-jeou took office in 2008, his government has tried to sell Taiwanese fruit to China.
Farmers have also expressed concern that while the government makes every effort to target the Chinese market, it ignores the Japanese market.
Statistics show that in 2007, Taiwan exported more than 17,200 tonnes of bananas to Japan, while the volume fell by half in the past two years.
Taiwanese farmers usually see Japan as a high-price market. Taiwanese bananas sold in China go for half what they would bring in Japan.
The Agriculture and Food Agency said the cost, insurance and freight (CIF) price of Taiwanese bananas to Japan was NT$61.9 per kilogram last week, while the CIF price of bananas to China was NT$27.6. Farmers, however, say the agency subsidizes exports to China through the Taiwan Provincial Fruit Marketing Cooperative and the Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Co, which buys the bananas from farmers for NT$15 per kilogram.
Pingtung County farmer Sun Kuo-liang said the purchase price was not always NT$15, as some businesspeople buy his bananas for NT$7 per kilogram.