China to possibly ban more fruit imports from Taiwan

China will possibly ban the import of oranges from Taiwan after it banned custard apples and wax apples recently, a media report said.

Beijing maintained that the ban on apples was announced due to mealybug infestations in shipments of apples on "multiple occasions" this year, Taipei Times reported on Friday.

But Taiwanese lawmakers deny it and are raising voice against the Chinese move and asking the country's authorities to take responsive actions against such decisions. They believe that the government should prepare contingency plans for a possible Chinese ban on oranges.

Lai Hui-yuan, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator from Taiwan, said that the Council of Agriculture and Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che must start planning a response to such a ban and not wait until after one has already happened, according to Taipei Times.

Tainan region of Taiwan is the country's biggest orange-producing region, with 1,764 hectares in Dongshan, Baihe and Lioujia districts producing 60,000 tonnes of the fruit per year.

Lai believes that such actions by Beijing would further harm the country's growers as they are already suffering from water shortages this year.

She stressed that authorities must help the growers in finding alternative buyers for them.

Urging the authorities to make make the export diversifying she said that it is needed so in the future any ban on the country's fruit exports won't harm growers, reported Taipei Times.

China accounts for 95 per cent of Tainan's orange exports or 0.5 per cent of the overall yield, Lai said.

Over the recent Chinese actions, Taipei has accused Beijing of playing politics and said that there was nothing wrong with fruits.

( With inputs from ANI )

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