Taiwan and New Zealand have agreed to begin feasibility studies for a potential economic agreement, a move that has been welcomed by New Zealand’s horticulture industry.
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office and the New Zealand Commerce and Industry Office announced late yesterday that each side would carry out studies to determine the economic impact of an agreement.
Taiwan’s minister of economic affairs Shih Yen-shiang said the studies were expected to be completed in under a year.
Taiwan is a growing market for New Zealand fruit, particularly kiwifruit and apples. The country is New Zealand’s seventh largest kiwifruit export market by volume, and has grown 55 per cent in the last five years to NZ$70m (US$55.8m) last year.
New Zealand kiwifruit marketer Zespri said the move was a particularly positive one considering the stress its industry was under from the bacterial disease Pseudomonas syringae pv actinidiae (Psa) at the moment.
“Given the increasing importance of Chinese Taipei `Taiwan` as a market, reducing the more than NZ$10m in tariffs paid on New Zealand kiwifruit imports into Chinese Taipei in 2010 will return more money to the pockets of growers,” said Simon Limmer, Zespri’s general manager of grower and government relations.
“This is great news and very timely. Growers will be under increasing pressure from both the Psa disease and the high New Zealand dollar in coming seasons, and anything that can be done to get more money back to them is welcome.”
