DA urges Taiwan to accept RP fruits

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is urging the Taiwan government to make an early decision on the Philippines to export its tropical fruits to Taiwan.

The Philippines hopes to ship out bananas, mangoes, pineapples, and coconuts and says it has complied with all the documentation and technical requirements imposed by Taiwan.

During the 9th Joint Economic Committee (JEC) meeting in Manila last Wednesday, Blo Umpar Adiong, director of the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), told Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor that the government has met all the pre-conditions set by Taiwan.

Among others, the Taiwan government asked the Philippines to submit the following: results of a two-year survey on the different pests on mangoes and bananas and a five-year data pest control program, pest outbreak, sampling techniques and frequencies for purpose of pest risk analysis.

"The BPI prepared and submitted the two-year data, which was personally accepted by the Taiwanese counterpart in September 2001," Adiong said. "The five-year report was sent by mail to Taiwan."

Adiong likewise reported to Montemayor that the Taiwanese counterpart of BPI visited the country in November last year to verify the information given to them.

Experts from Taiwan went to see the banana and mango plantations in Davao and Guimaras. They also met with the stakeholders of the said tropical fruits industries and asked them to turn over data on vapor heat treatment (VHT) confirmatory tests and results on fruit flies.

For its part, the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) has submitted the required documents to Undersecretary Cesar Drilon who heads the Philippine delegation.

The Philippines used to export coconuts to Taiwan through a quota system but this was stopped in 1999 due to the cadang-cadang infestation.