COA Matchmakes the Sugar Apple Industry to Expand New Southbound Market Channels

The Council of Agriculture (COA) held the "Taiwan Sugar Apple New Southbound and Emerging Market Expansion Matchmaking Meeting" yesterday (the 10th) at the Taitung District Farmers' Association, chaired by Deputy Minister Chen Tien-shou, hoping to strengthen the sugar apple industry supply chain through the matchmaking meeting and declare its determination to expand into New Southbound countries and emerging market channels. Magistrate Rao Ching-ling led Deputy Magistrate Chang Chih-ming and others in attending, and proposed that they hoped the COA would assist with the marketing of Taitung sugar apples, increase subsidies for export freight, expand orders from New Southbound countries, and future certification work.

Deputy Minister Chen Tien-shou stated that Taiwan's sugar apple cultivation area is about 5,500 hectares, with an annual production of nearly 60,000 metric tons. Taitung County is the main production area, accounting for 95% of our country's cultivation area. Among them, the "Da Mu" variety sugar apple is deeply loved by domestic consumers and is mainly sold domestically, while the pineapple sugar apple mostly follows the export route; from January to October of 2019 (ROC year 108), Taiwan's sugar apple export volume already exceeded 10,000 metric tons, with an export value reaching 28.83 million US dollars, making it one of our country's main exported fruits. Because fresh sugar apples do not tolerate storage and transportation well and are subject to quarantine restrictions in countries such as Japan and South Korea, the current export market is concentrated in mainland China.

In order to expand into emerging markets, the COA has since 2018 (ROC year 107) guided export operators to open up the emerging market in Malaysia. Starting from 2020 (ROC year 109), the council will further expand its target markets to include Singapore, Brunei, and Indonesia and other New Southbound countries, hoping to open up new channels and effectively diversify the risk of the current market concentration. It also hopes that through the establishment of the sugar apple export platform, it can matchmake sugar apple industry origin supply farmers, origin farmers' associations, the Taiwan Fruit and Vegetable Exporters Association, and related export operators, so that domestic and foreign consumers can together taste Taiwan's high-quality agricultural products, and it also looks forward to achieving the goal of allowing farmers to produce with peace of mind and stabilizing sugar apple farmers' income.