TAIPEI/BEIJING, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) — When fruit harvests peak, Taiwan farmers not solely want favorable climate but additionally consumers able to absorbing giant volumes rapidly. For an rising variety of them, these consumers are on the Chinese mainland, with its proximity, huge client market and measures to facilitate agricultural commerce.
In Juisui Township of east Taiwan’s Hualien County, farmers are racing to reap and pack pomelos, a seasonal fruit with a mildly bitter and candy aftertaste. For growers like Yang Ju-huang, who cultivates greater than 10,000 pomelo timber throughout a 22-mu (about 1.47 hectares) orchard, securing gross sales channels is as necessary as producing a great crop.
The pomelos grown in Juisui have comparatively thick peels and may endure a post-harvest course of wherein moisture progressively strikes from the peel again into the flesh, making them effectively suited to long-distance transportation.
“That gives our pomelos a particular advantage in reaching consumers across the Taiwan Strait,” Yang mentioned.
Access to the mainland market has expanded this 12 months. On Aug. 25 and Sept. 1 respectively, mainland authorities added extra Taiwan pomelo orchards and packing services to the checklist eligible to export to the mainland.
The Farmers’ Association in Juisui mentioned that exports to the mainland and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region are anticipated to additional develop this 12 months.
For farmers, the importance lies not solely in particular person orders, but additionally within the predictability of demand.
“Pomelos exported to the mainland have stable sales, which gives farmers greater peace of mind,” mentioned Chen Ting, a Hualien grower.
This demand is more and more seen past the orchards. Hualien pomelos have been showcased at main commerce and agricultural occasions in Beijing, south China’s Dongguan and Nanjing in east China this season, giving producers direct entry to shoppers and distributors in mainland cities.
“The good harvest this year coincided with sluggish sales of some fruits in the local market, making mainland demand particularly valuable,” mentioned Tsai Yao-cheng, director of Taiwan Farmers’ Association Development Co., Ltd. “Taiwan pomelos are now arriving in Nanjing every week, while Guangdong in south China and east China’s Fujian are also actively seeking to introduce Taiwan fruits.”
The identical market dynamic is much more pronounced for pineapple custard apples, one in all Taitung’s signature agricultural merchandise.
Pineapple custard apple orchards stretch for greater than 100 km throughout the county. Roughly 95 % of the island’s abroad shipments of the fruit have gone to the mainland, making this market a key a part of the trade’s gross sales construction.
Lin Chao-hung, head of a fruit growers’ cooperative group in Beinan Township, Taitung, informed Xinhua that her group established a secure partnership with a mainland warehouse retailer two years in the past, enabling the fruit to achieve mainland cabinets from the orchard in as little as 9 days.
The mainland has historically been a serious marketplace for Taiwan farm produce. In 2019, the mainland was the biggest export marketplace for such produce, taking on a share of twenty-two.9 % of the island’s whole farm produce exports.
However, pushed by a cross-Strait financial decoupling coverage, Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities deliberately deserted the mainland market that’s geographically shut, related by comparatively quick transport routes, and able to absorbing giant volumes of seasonal produce.
Meanwhile, the mainland has by no means stopped attempting to reconnect and promote agricultural exchanges throughout the Strait.
The mainland in April rolled out a bundle of 10 insurance policies and measures to advertise cross-Strait exchanges and cooperation. One of those measures goals to facilitate the entry of Taiwan agricultural and fishery merchandise that meet quarantine necessities and helps their participation in mainland commerce festivals to broaden gross sales channels.
Implementation has since moved past coverage bulletins to concrete commerce facilitation. At the Straits Forum in June, a matchmaking and signing occasion introduced collectively Taiwan agricultural and fishery producers and mainland consumers. Mainland corporations signed procurement agreements with enterprises and trade associations from a number of Taiwan localities masking merchandise starting from pineapple custard apples to pomelos and tea.
Figures level to a broader pattern. According to Taiwan’s agricultural authorities, the island’s whole agricultural exports declined within the first half of 2026, as shipments to the United States and Japan fell. By distinction, exports to the mainland rose 11.3 % on this interval, with pineapple custard apples among the many foremost development objects.
Yet the growth of agricultural commerce has not been matched by an equally open and facilitating strategy from Taiwan authorities.
When mainland enterprises positioned orders for Taiwan agricultural and fishery merchandise, together with pineapple custard apples from Taitung and groupers from Pingtung, on the Straits Forum matchmaking occasion, the DPP authorities accused the mainland of utilizing agricultural merchandise as a political instrument and launched investigations into 5 Taiwan agricultural and fishery organizations that participated within the occasion.
This episode underscored the hole between the industrial nature of cross-Strait agricultural exchanges and the political lens by which they’re seen by the DPP authorities.
An identical sample has emerged in tourism and different areas coated by the ten measures. While the mainland has sought to advertise people-to-people exchanges and broaden enterprise hyperlinks, the DPP authorities have imposed extra political circumstances and administrative obstacles on such contacts.
“The 10 measures fully align with the common interests of people on both sides of the Strait,” mentioned Sheng Jiuyuan, director of the middle for Taiwan research at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in east China. These measures, he mentioned, are pragmatic steps to advertise the peaceable growth of cross-Strait relations and deepen built-in growth, with advantages reaching grassroots farmers and fishermen, small and micro companies, younger individuals and different teams in Taiwan.
After the measures have been launched, the DPP authorities instantly launched a marketing campaign to discredit them, Sheng mentioned, arguing that such efforts intentionally fueled confrontation throughout the Strait and performed up the so-called “mainland threat” to divert consideration from governance issues.
“The DPP authorities’ actions were driven entirely by the party’s own political interests at the expense of the island’s overall development and the well-being and livelihoods of its people,” Sheng famous.
For Taiwan’s fruit growers, nevertheless, the calculation is extra simple: when harvests arrive, a dependable market issues. For an rising variety of them, the mainland stays a market giant sufficient, shut sufficient and secure sufficient to make a tangible distinction.
“A sufficient and stable market is the most practical guarantee,” Lin Chao-hung from Taitung mentioned.