Taiwan-grown dragon fruit, or Hylocereus spp., including types with red, purple and hybrid flesh, have been approved for export to Japan, spotlighting government success in tapping into new markets, the Ministry of Agriculture said June 5.
The decision was announced by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries earlier in the day, with the condition that the fruit must undergo vapor heat treatment for 30 minutes at 46.5 Celsius degree to kill fruit flies.
According to the MOA, the move followed a 2010 Japan market access approval for white-flesh dragon fruit exports. The current consent is attributable to the ministry’s long-standing quest to upgrade fresh fruit steaming treatment equipment in central and southern Taiwan facilities and improve quarantine efficacy by use of cold chain technology, it added.
Several other agricultural products including bananas, grapes, jujubes, lychees, mangoes, papayas, pineapples, ponkans and two pomelo species have also received Japanese import licenses, the MOA said. The total Japan-bound fresh fruit export volume reached 18,000 metric tons last year, up over 400 percent from 2016, while the export value amounted to US$30 million, an increase of 198.9 percent from 2016, making Japan the largest importer of Taiwan-grown fruit, the ministry added.
Other than Japan, locally cultivated dragon fruit is also exported to Bahrain, Brunei, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Palau, Singapore, the Netherlands and the United Arab Emirates, according to the MOA.
The ministry is committed to implementing product traceability management and export quarantine processing to expand the reach of Taiwan-grown dragon fruit, the MOA said, adding that it will also continue to ensure agricultural products’ quality and stable supply, as well as discuss reasonable science-based quarantine regulations with other trading partners to expand Taiwan’s fresh produce export markets. (YCH-E)
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