According to the Council of Agriculture, Taiwan will ship 5 tons of bananas to the Tokyo Olympics. Japan’s Olympic committee also reviewed Taiwan’s pineapples, dragon fruit and mangoes, but in the end settled on just bananas and pineapples. However, as the harvest period for pineapples had just passed, only bananas made the grade, according to the COA.
Kaohsiung City and Pingtung County will supply the fruit for the athletes during the July 23 to August 8 games. Over the past few years, Taiwan’s banana exports to Japan have tripled from 1,000 tons to 3,000 tons a year, with hopes for more than 10,000 tons eventually, the COA said.
Taiwan’s fruit exports to Japan have on the whole been surging, especially after China slapped a ban on the island nation’s pineapples in March, supposedly because inspectors had found bugs in the fruit. Taiwannews.com.tw reports how several countries, including Japan, stepped up imports of the Taiwan fruit, now known as “Freedom Pineapples.”