To Pressure Taiwan, China is Now Targeting its Grouper Exports

Fangliao, Taiwan — Rin Chun Lai purchased a grouper farm in southern Taiwan about 10 years ago with a view to growing desire for live fish in mainland China. In just a few years, the former electrician comfortably supported a family of four and earned enough money to open a small inn.

China then suddenly banned all imports of groupers from the island in an attempt to put an economic screw on Taiwan, an autonomous island that Beijing claims to be a dominion. This move separated Mr Lin and other farmers like him from their major markets, endangering their livelihoods and hitting the lucrative industry.

“What else can I do if I don’t have groupers?” Lin recently morning raised more than 70,000 fish on a short concrete wall overlooking a pool of 2.5 acres of water. Said that. The grouper was ready to harvest, but since the ban came into effect a week ago, he hasn’t usually received orders from fish merchants calling at this time.

Chinese customs officials said they recently discovered banned chemicals and excessive levels of other drugs in groupers imported from Taiwan. Taiwanese officials opposed the ban, claiming it was a political motive. Tsai Ing-wen, the president of the island, vowed to help the grouper farmers.

China’s leader Xi Jinping said Taiwan’s unification with China was inevitable, but most of Taiwan’s 23 million people are in favor of maintaining the island’s de facto independence. As Beijing increased pressure on the island, Taiwan moved to strengthen economic and diplomatic relations with friendly countries, including the United States, the European Union and Japan.

In recent years, Beijing has sent military aircraft to the island almost every day. It sought to isolate Taiwan, strip away the few remaining diplomatic allies, and prevent its participation in international organizations. Also, after saying last year that fruits caused pests, more and more people are trying to ban Taiwan’s pineapples and then wax apples to limit the island’s access to China’s vast consumer market. ..

Taiwan was sometimes able to mitigate the effects of such measures. The people quickly gathered to support the island’s pineapple farmers. Restaurants compete to showcase creative menus of pineapple-centric dishes, politicians post photos of themselves eating “Freedom pineapples” on social media, and government departments give civil servants more thorny fruits. I advised you to eat. Countries like Japan have intervened to help fill the shortfall by increasing imports of pineapple on the island.

“Our business has flourished more than ever thanks to the support of the people of Taiwan,” said She Kun-sung, 61, a pineapple farmer in southern Kaohsiung.

However, it may not be easy for Taiwanese grouper farmers to leave the Chinese market. Last year, 91% of grouper exports, more than $ 50 million, went to China, according to Taiwanese government data. Known for its lean and moist meat, this fish, unlike pineapple, is usually considered a relatively high-end seafood in Taiwan for special occasions. According to grouper farmer Lin, the price of some types of grouper has already dropped from $ 4 to $ 3.30 per pound since China’s ban.

Logistics is also an issue. Most groupers cultivated in Taiwan are sold raw to China, and customers generally prefer to eat fresh fish cooked immediately after being killed. To shift to a farther market, logistics companies need to use what they call a “cold chain”, a system for transporting and storing refrigerated or frozen fresh food, at an additional cost. Recently, while interest from domestic customers and Japanese buyers has increased slightly, some grouper farmers have said their phones are unusually quiet.

“It’s easy to transport live fish to China,” said Kuo Chien-hsien, an assistant professor of aquatic and biological sciences at National Chiayi University. “So now, if you suddenly want to change the model, it’s actually very difficult.”

The recent ban strongly reminds Taiwan of the risk of being overly economically dependent on the mainland. Trade between the two countries has grown over the past few decades, and relations have been friendly, especially under Taiwan’s previous administration.

In 2010, Beijing and Taipei reached a groundbreaking trade agreement to reduce tariffs on various products, including groupers, and many Taiwanese aquaculture companies increase their inventory of fish, which can take up to five years to cultivate. Competed in. By the time 50-year-old Chen Chien-chih took over his family’s fish farming in the plains of southern Taiwan five years ago, groupers were already one of the company’s major exports.

However, Chen and his wife, Pan Chiun-hui, 48, see China continuously banning other products on the tariff-reduced export list, such as pineapples and wax apples. Increased concern. Their fear only deepened last year when China announced the discovery of some chemicals in batches of groupers imported from two Taiwanese farms.

The couple went on sale. By the time the ban was announced earlier this month, they had already sold half of the 6,000 fish, primarily to local fish traders and customers.

“We have been working hard on diversification,” Pan said in an interview on her farm by the lush mountains. “But that wasn’t enough. We still rely heavily on the Chinese market.”

Recently, Taiwanese agricultural authorities have contacted group farmers on ways the government can help, such as providing low interest rate loans and feed subsidies and expanding access to domestic consumers and foreign markets. rice field. Another idea that comes to mind is to put the fish in individually packaged meal boxes sold at stations and trains by Taiwan’s railway administration. Taiwan’s Fisheries Agency said on Tuesday that it would spend more than $ 13 million to support the grouper industry.

The Council of Agriculture Executive Yuan of Taiwan said it would consider filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization over the grouper ban. Lin Kuo-ping, Deputy Director of the Council of Agriculture Executive Yuan, said the government contacted a Chinese response agency to discuss the inspection process, but did not respond. China’s Customs Directorate did not respond to email requests for comment.

Some grouper farmers said that if the ban was not lifted, they would have to make a big loss to sell fish in the domestic market. Until then, the fish will remain in the pond. Grouper farmer Hayashi said he was worried that groupers would die in overcrowding.

He is currently looking forward to another species of fish he cultivates, the four-fingered threadfin fish that is also popular on the mainland. But he admitted that even this backup strategy is vulnerable to geopolitical changes. Last year, Taiwan’s fish exports amounted to about $ 40 million, with more than 70% exported to China.

“Our biggest customer is still China,” he said.