According to COA, four other cities in Shizuoka Prefecture plan to add Taiwan bananas to their lunch programs in the near future, while the council is also in talks with related authorities in Akita, Aomori, Ishikawa and Kanagawa prefectures on similar pacts. If all the deals are sealed, COA estimates Taiwan’s total banana exports to Japan would reach about 10,000 tons per year.
When the project was implemented on a trial basis July 6, some students brought home their bananas, with one pupil writing in their diary: “Grandma shed tears at the taste of the banana, saying only sick people had the privilege of eating this kind of fruit when she was little.” The anecdote was featured in Japanese media reports about the school lunch initiative, drawing considerable local attention to the arrangement.
Under the project, Taiwan bananas are given to students on the 11th day of each month as July 11 is Taiwan Day in Gotemba. “The program could help boost awareness of Taiwan among Japanese schoolchildren, and once they sample our delicious bananas they’ll want to try other fruits and products from Taiwan, too,” said Hsiou Dong-chong, deputy director-general of COA’s Department of International Affairs.
Hu Jong-i, director-general of COA’s Department of Planning, said bananas entering the Japanese market through channels such as this are cheaper as they are supplied directly to consumers without first going through agents or retailers. “The project will help increase the incomes of our farmers and boost the output of our agricultural sector,” he added.
Dubbed the “banana kingdom” in the 1960s, Taiwan was once a major producer of the fruit. At its peak, the local agricultural industry exported up to 480,000 tons of bananas to Japan a year, with Taiwan bananas comprising roughly 90 percent of the Japanese market.
In the decades since, the Philippines and Ecuador have replaced Taiwan as Japan’s major banana providers due to the lower cost of their produce, with Taiwan shipping around 3,000 tons of the fruit to Japan, or less than 1 percent of the total, last year. COA’s Hu said the school lunch pact demonstrates that, with the right strategies, Taiwan’s high-quality bananas can be highly competitive in overseas markets. (OC-E)
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