SOURCE: Su Mu-chun and Ko Lin, Focus Taiwan
The Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) on Tuesday said it had registered with Japan’s agricultural ministry a new pineapple variety that it developed in 2019.
The new cultivar, named Tainung No. 23, was developed by TARI’s Chiayi Agricultural Experiment Station, which is known to have introduced 18 different pineapple varieties in Taiwan, including the original Tainung No. 1 in 1934.
TARI said it had sent a request to Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF) on Oct. 18, 2021, to have its new pineapple variety registered for intellectual property protection in the Japanese market.
On May 6 this year, MAFF released the results of its review on Tainung No. 23, meaning there will be temporary protection for this new pineapple variety.
However, further examination will need to be carried out by the Japanese authorities before the fruit is given full legal protection.
According to TARI, the purpose of this registration would be to protect the exclusivity of the Tainung No. 23 brand and to prevent unscrupulous vendors from marketing this variety as their own.
TARI said the Tainung No. 23 has a mango fragrance, delicate taste, and no apparent fibers.
This variety has a long shelf life, making it suitable for export, the institute said.
According to the Council of Agriculture (COA), Japan has become the leading export destination for Taiwanese pineapples, after China halted imports of the fruit from Taiwan in February of last year.
Of the 28,664 metric tons of pineapple exported by Taiwan in 2021, 17,850 metric tons, 62.3 percent of the total, were exported to Japan, COA statistics show.
Much of the rest of the total went to Hong Kong and China.
China imported 50,168 metric tons of fruit from Taiwan in 2019 and 41,661 metric tons in 2020.