New time frame captures Taiwan’s mango season which begins in June
Korea has announced it will extend its preferential tariff on Taiwanese exports of bananas, pineapples and mangoes, according to a Taipei Times report.
The tariff-rate quota scheme, which was launched in February to help stabilise consumer food prices, reduces the duty rate on fruit imports from 30 per cent to 5 per cent.
It was originally planned to run from 12 February to 30 June to stabilise price hikes over Lunar New Year, but Taiwan’s Ministry of Agriculture has announced it will now be extended to 15 August.
According to Taipei Times, this is to take advantage of Taiwan’s mango season which begins in June – two months earlier than Korea’s domestic Jeju Island season.
Tainan mayor Huang Wei-che told the Taipei Times the Tainan City government had traveled to Korea three times in the past year as part of advocacy efforts to extend the sheme into August.
Huang said Tainan is among the nation’s major fruit production regions adding that the city’s mango exports to Japan and Korea have already surpassed 300 tonnes this year.
As part of the announcement Taiwan’s Ministry of Agriculture thanked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Taipei Mission in Korea, local governments and legislator Chen Ting-fei for their successful advocacy and said it would continue to support exports of Taiwan-grown mangoes through fruit quality improvement and marketing events.
