Legislator calls for tighter agricultural import rules
By Yang Yuan-ting and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) yesterday urged tighter agricultural import regulations after kiwifruit with false country-of-origin labels were allegedly spotted at Taipei’s First Fruit and Vegetables Wholesale Market.
Chiu made the comments during a meeting with Ministry of Agriculture officials at the legislature, saying his office received credible claims that one of the capital city’s biggest wholesale venues was selling fruits bearing labels that read “produce of CWA.”
The International Organization for Standardization does not recognize CWA as a valid country code and images of kiwifruit packaging bearing the three-letter code has sparked rampant speculation on the Internet that “China’s western area” was the source of the produce.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei, right, questions government officials at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Yang Yuan-ting, Taipei Times
Minister of Agriculture Chen Junne-jih (陳駿季) said CWA is an invalid country code and that he did not know which country produced the fruits.
CN is the correct country code for agricultural products from China, he said, adding that the ministry would ask the Food and Drugs Administration to assist in investigating the fruits’ origins.
Taiwan is largely dependent on foreign imports for kiwifruit and imported 28,501 tonnes of it from January to last month, trade records show.
New Zealand is the nation’s largest supplier of kiwifruit, accounting for 26,565 tonnes of imports over the January-to-September period. Italy was a distant second at 1,223 tonnes and China at third place with 695 tonnes.
However, China has doubled its kiwifruit exports to Taiwan compared with a year earlier.
Taiwanese strongly distrust the safety of Chinese produce despite its sizeable market share, as health authorities have repeatedly found agricultural chemical residues exceeding the safety limit in fruits and vegetables from the country.
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