Taiwan gets creative with pineapples to offset Beijing’s ban

Beijing imposed a ban on the fruit on March 1, citing the discovery of pests, sending panic among farmers

Social media has since been filled with calls for consumers to buy pineapples, while restaurants are coming up with ever more ways to add the fruit to their menus

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An employee prepares pineapple juice at the Courtyard restaurant at the Marriott hotel in Taipei. Photo: AFP

Published: 1:02pm, 24 Mar 2021Updated: 1:01pm, 24 Mar 2021

Beijing’s ban on pineapple imports from Taiwan has sparked a flood of buying of the fruit and forced restaurants to come up with inventive new menu choices but it has also left many questioning Taipei’s overwhelming economic reliance on its giant neighbour.

While much of the island’s pineapple crop is consumed at home, 90 per cent of its overseas shipments head for sale in the vast mainland Chinese market.

However, that leaves its farmers at the mercy of Beijing, which views the self-ruled island as part of its territory and has vowed to one day seize it, by force if needed.

On March 1, Beijing imposed a ban on pineapples citing the discovery of pests, sending panic among the fruit’s farmers fearing for their livelihoods.

“This is a political issue that we farmers are unable to resolve,” said plantation owner Min Lee-ming, as dozens of workers rushed to pluck, trim and box up the fruits in Taishan, a rural part of southern Pingtung county known locally as “Pineapple Town”.

“We just want to live a stable life and we need to make ends meet,” he said.