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Thirty percent of shiitake mushrooms on the market are smuggled from China, brought in illegally and passed off under false origins, raising serious concerns about pesticide, heavy metal and toxin residues

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Thirty percent of shiitake mushrooms on the market are smuggled from China, brought in illegally and passed off under false origins, raising serious concerns about pesticide, heavy metal and toxin residues

Taiwan's shiitake mushrooms are of good quality and high nutritional value, and are a widely used ingredient in Chinese cuisine, but they have long been threatened by illegally imported, low-priced Chinese shiitake mushrooms. The industry estimates that more than 1,000 metric tons of Chinese shiitake mushrooms are illegally shipped to Taiwan each year, one third of domestic shiitake production. In particular, after the warm winter last year (2018) and with domestic shiitake production this year at only 50% of previous years, "even so, we still can't sell them, because Chinese shiitake mushrooms are just too cheap!" said Chen Tsung-ming, chairman of the Taiwan Mushroom Development Association, helplessly. (To learn how to tell the difference between Taiwanese and Chinese shiitake mushrooms, please click here)

To crack down on smuggled Chinese mushrooms being passed off and sold, the Executive Yuan is promoting the "Origin Labeling Inspection Program for Dry Shiitake Mushrooms Sold on the Market." On the 8th, inspections were first carried out on bulk and packaged dry shiitake mushrooms sold by dried goods retailers in Taipei City. Of 12 items sampled, 5 were suspected to be Chinese shiitake mushrooms. If verified, they will be penalized in accordance with the law, in order to safeguard consumer food safety and the rights and interests of Taiwanese mushroom farmers.

Coast Guard personnel seize smuggled Chinese shiitake mushrooms year after year. (Provided by the Fifth Coastal Patrol Corps of the Coast Guard)

One third of the mushrooms on the market are smuggled from China! They enter Taiwan through illegal crossings and false origin laundering

Our country applies tariff quota controls on imports of dry shiitake mushrooms, with an annual quota of 288 metric tons (in-quota tariff rate of 25%), and imports are only permitted during two periods, January to March and October to December. The import of Chinese shiitake mushrooms is explicitly prohibited (Note 1), in order to protect Taiwan's shiitake industry. Vietnam is our country's largest source of shiitake imports, accounting for more than 80%, followed by South Korea and Japan.

Taiwan's shiitake mushrooms are of good quality, with annual production of more than 5,000 tons, but production costs are relatively high, with the farm-gate price at about 1,100 yuan per kilogram. Imported Japanese and Korean shiitake mushrooms also follow a high-priced premium route, with prices even higher than domestic mushrooms, while smuggled Chinese shiitake mushrooms sell for only 450-500 yuan (per kilogram) on the market, a price gap of a full twofold. This leads many unscrupulous operators to spare no cost in risking smuggling or using the name of a third place to transship Chinese mushrooms, passing them off as the higher-priced Taiwanese, Japanese or Korean shiitake mushrooms in order to reap huge profits. The shiitake market has been chaotic for years, and the government has never been able to stop the tide of smuggling, seriously hurting our country's shiitake industry.

Chen Tsung-ming, chairman of the Taiwan Mushroom Development Association, said that last year's warm winter meant many space bags produced mushrooms only once, making this year's domestic shiitake production hit a record low, estimated at only 3,000 metric tons. "But even so, we still can't sell them. Some wholesalers have even cut prices, because Chinese shiitake mushrooms are just too cheap!" The industry estimates that this year there are still more than 1,000 tons of smuggled shiitake mushrooms, approaching half of domestic production, which has seriously eaten into the consumer market and affected mushroom farmers' livelihoods.

Vietnam's "shiitake miracle" may be suspected of laundering Chinese origins

Looking through import statistics, Vietnam has been our country's largest source of shiitake imports for the past decade, with a high proportion of flower shiitake. But according to Lu Yun-sheng, assistant researcher in the Plant Pathology Division of the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute, who has visited Vietnam to observe local shiitake cultivation methods, Vietnam's climate is hotter and more humid than Taiwan's, making it difficult to grow flower shiitake.

Moreover, Vietnamese mushroom farmers string harvested shiitake mushrooms into a line and hang them at the doorway, using traditional air-drying to dry them, which is also unique to the area. "Vietnamese food likes to add fish sauce, and even the shiitake mushrooms are mixed with a fish sauce flavor. Nowhere else is like this." This is very different from the Vietnamese flower shiitake currently imported to our country.

Lu pointed out that Vietnam produced almost no shiitake mushrooms before the 100th year of the Republic of China (2011), but starting in the 101st year (2012) it unexpectedly began exporting large quantities of shiitake mushrooms, casting layers of doubt over Vietnam's "shiitake miracle," and some outside observers suspect it may be a case of laundering the origin of a third country.

The Coast Guard investigates every year: smuggling is worst around the three major festivals

"When Taiwanese shiitake prices rise, Chinese smuggling increases." This year alone, five major Chinese shiitake smuggling cases have been seized, including the Customs Administration's Kaohsiung Customs seizing more than 10 tons of illegally smuggled dry shiitake mushrooms in a container in April; in September, a smuggling ring in the Kaohsiung area staged a "swap trick," using discarded clothing to conceal the smuggled shiitake mushroom operation, and 19 tons of shiitake mushrooms were intercepted on the spot by the Coast Guard Administration. The Fifth Coastal Patrol Corps of the Coast Guard Administration said that since the opening of the mini three links, cross-strait goods have moved in and out frequently, and many operators, seeing the price gap between the two places, take the opportunity to profit. Their methods keep being renewed, making it impossible for inspection officers to guard against them.

In the Kinmen area, Wu Chien-kuan, captain of the Ninth Coastal Patrol Corps of the Coast Guard Administration, explained that although people entering our country through the mini three links channel may carry a small amount of Chinese agricultural products (Note 2), many operators use this to persuade travelers to carry Chinese shiitake mushrooms and then buy them up in bulk, reselling them for profit, which already involves suspicion of smuggling.

Coast Guard personnel seize smuggled Chinese shiitake mushrooms buried in a mound of soil. (Provided by the Ninth Coastal Patrol Corps of the Coast Guard)

In addition, Chinese agricultural products are prohibited from being mailed into Taiwan, yet Coast Guard personnel still intercept an average of 200-300 kilograms of illegal goods each month this year, higher than the annual average of previous years. "It is most obvious around the three major festivals, which are the peak season for smuggling dried goods. The Spring Festival is driven by gift-giving demand, the Dragon Boat Festival by the need to wrap zongzi, and Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake fillings also use shiitake mushrooms."

Although our country's import controls on shiitake mushrooms are relatively strict, with box-by-box random inspection, Chinese shiitake mushrooms entering through illegal channels are still circulating everywhere in the market. The Agriculture and Food Agency is responsible for compiling statistics on the amount of smuggled shiitake mushrooms seized in various places and destroying them uniformly. Hsu Hui-fei, head of the Crop Production Division, pointed out that this year (as of June), 32,184 kilograms have already been destroyed.

Smuggled mushrooms are dangerous! Concerns about pesticide, heavy metal and toxin residues

Chinese shiitake mushrooms flood the market, and consumers urgently need to distinguish them carefully, otherwise they may end up eating Chinese mushrooms with food safety concerns. Both Lu Yun-sheng and Chen Tsung-ming have visited China for inspections and pointed out that Chinese mushroom sheds are not only traditional and crude, but also have problems in management from production to transportation.

Lu said that some mushroom sheds are set up temporarily. "For example, if the land was originally used to grow rice, and one season it is not planted, they put up a bamboo shed in the field, place space bags inside, and start growing mushrooms." As for the space bags, before use they must undergo high-temperature and high-pressure sterilization before inoculation can begin, but many Chinese mushroom farmers cut corners, putting the space bags in large plastic bags and piping boiler steam in, blowing hot air for six hours and considering disinfection complete. If sterilization is not done well, chemicals need to be added to inhibit bacteria, making the quality of the grown shiitake mushrooms even more doubtful.

In addition, Chinese authorities approve more than 30 kinds of pesticides for mushroom farmers to use, the most common being benomyl. The frequency of pesticide use is high, and residue contamination (insecticides, fungicides) is serious; even residues of the heavy metals cadmium and mercury can be detected. In Taiwan, by contrast, mushroom farmers hardly use any pesticides, and the only legal pesticide available is "fumei" (a fungicide). On top of that, in China, especially in the Henan area, when drying shiitake mushrooms they tend to use lower-cost coal, and burning coal easily produces sulfur dioxide, making the sulfur dioxide residue in Chinese mushrooms relatively high, which is also very different from Taiwan's shiitake mushroom practices.

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