In recent years there has been a high demand for high-quality, well-wrapped, expensive fruit in Taiwan. This is an indication of the importance of gift-culture for the people. It also shows that the market for high-quality fruit develops steadily within the larger context of economic recovery in Taiwan. Taiwan is located in the sub-tropical and tropical zones. They make use of weather conditions at different elevations to produce fruit from tropical, sub-tropical, and temperate zones. They can grow more than 30 different varieties. Furthermore, they utilize technology that can regulate the production period, so that they can grow bananas, pineapples, grapes, and wax apples all year round.
High-quality fruit becomes popular Taiwan souvenir
However, when the Taiwanese buy gifts, they still favor imported fruit products. According to statistics from the Agricultural Association the overall import value of fruit, nuts, and their manufactured products in 2016 was 1,090 million USD. This is an increase of 8% compared to the previous year. This was mainly caused by the increase in imports of refrigerated apples, grapes, and kiwi fruit.
The conditions for Taiwanese fruit are changing. The fruit used to be relatively cheap, but because of changes in weather conditions and subsequent natural disasters the production volume of Taiwanese fruit has decreased, which was followed by an increase of prices. Take 2016 for example, out of 59 kinds of common Taiwanese fruits such as mangoes and wax apples, there were 41 kinds of fruit that had record prices. In 2017, however, the price of Taiwanese fruit dropped from an average kilo-price of 44 yuan [6.94 USD] in 2016 to 40.6 yuan [6.41 USD] in 2017. Market conditions are slowly recovering, but prices are still in the second-highest position of the last 10 years.
Source: Lianhe Zaobao