In a push to expand an international jujubes market, Taiwan will commence exporting the fruit to Japan early next year.
Taiwan has been exporting jujubes to China, Canada, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Japan will be the first export country that requires quarantine procedures for the tropical fruit.
Chiou Chu-ying, a researcher at the Kaohsiung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station in southern Taiwan, states that the country has been a primary cultivator of jujubes since the early 1990s. Growers have a high yield rate and the product has a long shelf life.
Chiou states that each fruit weighs approximately 150g on average and sells for over NT$100 (US$3.40). They are typically juicy and sweet, unlike the sour and astringent jujubes grown in India.
The director of the station, Huang Tze-chung, hopes Taiwan’s nutrient-rich jujubes prove as successful on the global market as New Zealand kiwifruit. He states that their vitamin C content is twice that of lemons, four times that of cherries and 20 times that of apples.
While jujubes are also grown in India, China and Thailand, Taiwan is currently the only country that produces them for export.
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