China is to resume imports of Taiwanese grouper from “registered” fisheries starting immediately, the Chinese General Administration of Customs announced on Friday.
Seven fisheries have already obtained authorization and may now export to China, the Fisheries Agency said.
China on June 13 last year halted imports of Taiwanese grouper over the alleged discovery of prohibited dyes and chemicals.
Photo: Yang Yuan-ting, Taipei Times
However, “after a comprehensive assessment of the Taiwan side’s corrective measures,” the administration on Friday said it was to resume grouper imports.
Taiwan’s grouper producers have through many channels expressed willingness to improve their quality and ensure safety of their exported products, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) said in a news release.
Zhu in particular named Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Policy Committee vice chair Su Ching-chuan (蘇清泉), who also heads an agricultural trade organization, and Huang Yi-cheng (黃一成), head of the Taiwan Cross-Strait Agricultural and Fishery Exchange Development Investment Association.
The two helped work with fishers to make corrective measures and led visits to China, expressing a “strong wish” to resume grouper imports, Zhu said.
The Ministry of Agriculture previously said that it has worked to diversify to other markets since the import ban was instated last year.
Sixty percent of the grouper produced used to be exported, but now the same percentage is sold domestically, the ministry said, adding that it has also expanded processing to sell grouper-based products in other markets such as the US.
In the first 11 months of the year, the value of grouper exports increased by 63 percent from the same period last year, namely to Hong Kong, Malaysia and the US, ministry data showed.
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