China to buy 1,200 tons of surplus oranges from Taiwan

The Taiwan Provincial Fruit Marketing Cooperative and the Yunlin County Farmers’ Association signed the deal worth 7 million yuan (US$840,000) with “related Chinese authorities” on yesterday.

China said it was willing to import the oranges to help Taiwan ease a glut of the fruit.

“The oranges will be packed into containers in the coming days and shipped to the ports of Xiamen, Shanghai and Tianjin.

“They will appear on the markets in some Chinese cities before the Chinese New Year festival which starts on February 17,” said Peng Sheng-fu, vice chairman of the cooperative.

This is China’s second large-scale purchase of Taiwanese fruit over-production. In October 2006, China bought 2,000 tons of bananas to ease a glut which caused the banana price to plummet on the island.

Taipei still bans formal contacts with Beijing, but has allowed indirect trade with China since 1985.

The fruit trade is carried out between civic groups in Taiwan and China. The independence-leaning government is opposed to the trade, calling it an offensive from Beijing to win the Taiwanese people’s support for Taiwan-China reunification.

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