Taiwanese pineapples can be exported to New Zealand after the two countries yesterday signed an export agreement for fresh fruit and vegetables.
The agreement was signed during a meeting of the sanitary and phytosanitary measures joint management committee, which was formed under the Agreement Between New Zealand and the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu on Economic Cooperation.
This is a major breakthrough after the Ministry of Agriculture provided information that Wellington sought over the past eight years, it said.
Photo: Chen Wen-chan, Taipei Times
The deal stipulates that pineapple exports to New Zealand must be managed systematically, it said.
They must be harvested in the mature green stage and records of production, harvest, management and transportation must be kept for tracing purposes, it said.
Training should be provided to pineapple growers before the export season starts every year, it added.
To export pineapples to New Zealand, crown buds should be removed, the ministry said.
After the fruit arrives in New Zealand, 600 pineapples would be examined by quarantine officers to ensure that the fruit do not carry insects that would harm the local agricultural industry, it said.
Aside from New Zealand, Taiwanese pineapples are exported to Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Palau, Guam, the Netherlands and Russia.
As of yesterday, 7,612 tonnes of Taiwanese pineapples had been exported overseas this year, 7,390 of which went to Japan, ministry data showed.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS