Pineapple Cans: How a Sweet Treat Earned Post-War Taiwan Foreign Exchange

30-Second Overview: Today, when people think of pineapple, they often first think of pineapple cakes or the Golden Diamond (Jin Zuan) variety. But for a long time after the war, what truly earned Taiwan foreign exchange was can after can of pineapple preserved in syrup. In 1902, the first pineapple canning factory appeared in Fengshan, Kaohsiung; by 1969, Taiwan's total export volume reached 4.43 million boxes. Later, this industry lost out to low-wage Southeast Asia and Taiwan's own fresh fruit market. What remains is not simply nostalgia, but a path from farmland and female workers on production lines all the way to the global market. ^{1 2 3}

Image: Jiuqudang Taifang Trading Company Pineapple Canning Plant (Taiwan Pineapple Factory). Author Pbdragonwang, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0. Image original file page. ⁴

Start with a Can of Pineapple

If you visited someone in the hospital in the 1950s, you might have brought not flowers, but a can of pineapple. At that time, supplies were still tight; pineapple cans were treated as precious gifts. Company welfare societies purchased them in bulk and then resold them to employees. Records in the National Archives even include photos of the Taiwan Provincial Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau purchasing pineapple cans. ¹

This object is small, but the industry behind it is large. It first had to pass through the pineapples in the fields, the railways or ox carts that brought them to the factory, the workers who sliced and canned them, the tinplate that could isolate oxygen, and finally, the ships that carried them away. The story of pineapple cans therefore belongs not only to the dining table, but also to the food industry and export economy.

Curator's Note: The most memorable aspect of pineapple cans is that they once transformed "fruit that could be eaten up" into "commodities that could wait for ships, markets, and national needs."

1902: A Factory in Fengshan

The history of pineapple cultivation in Taiwan can be traced back to the Kangxi era of the Qing Dynasty, but early "inlai" varieties had small fruits and high acidity. Besides fresh consumption, they were often utilized for their fiber. What truly changed their fate was processing: in 1902, Japanese merchant Okamura Shotaro established Taiwan's first pineapple canning factory in Fengshan, Kaohsiung, making long-distance transport and overseas sales possible. ^{1 5}

Okamura saw more than just taste. Pineapples are heat-resistant, retaining their flavor even after heating. The climate and soil in southern and central Taiwan were also suitable for cultivation. During the Japanese colonial period, the "Kaiying" (Queen) variety was introduced from overseas, gradually turning pineapples that were originally unsuitable for canning into more standardized raw materials. ^{6 7}

In 1903, Taiwan pineapples won an award at the Osaka Expo, and the product began to be recognized by the Japanese market. Early cans were merely peeled and sliced; later, processes such as coring, heart removal, high-temperature sterilization, and cooling were developed. Even pineapple hearts were processed into candied fruit, becoming a source of sweetness for children in times of scarcity. ⁸

This path was not smooth. Around 1930, there were too many factories with uneven quality, and the Kaiying variety suffered from wilt disease. Research indicates that in 1930, there were as many as 81 pineapple factories in Taiwan. The establishment of the Godo Kaisha (Contracted Company) in 1935 centralized production and sales management, raising standards, but also made small Taiwanese factories and farmers more susceptible to price and institutional constraints. ^{5 7}

After the War: Sweetness Connected to the State Machine

The war destroyed factories and supply chains, and a shortage of tinplate made it difficult to restore canning production. The post-war government listed pineapples as a commodity for agricultural revival and earning foreign exchange, encouraging farmers to plant them, supporting factories, and obtaining canning materials through US aid. In 1955, the pineapple business under Taiwan Agriculture and Forestry became private, and the Taiwan Pineapple Co., Ltd. was established, expanding the industry again. ^{1 2}

What truly pushed this export road eastward was Taiwan Sugar (Taishu). In 1955, Taishu established a pineapple factory in Taitung, partly to create jobs for farmers and partly to ensure the Taitung Sugar Factory had production during sugar-making shutdowns. The factory covered 8,160 square meters and began production on July 11, 1957, under the brand "Sugar Phoenix" (Taisuco). ³

From field to can, there was a precise yet labor-intensive order. Farmers delivered fruits to the factory via ox carts or small trains. After machines peeled and cored the fruit, five production lines were lined with female workers in white coats, white hats, and gloves, who removed black spots slice by slice, then sliced, canned, added syrup, sealed, sterilized, and labeled. ^{1 9}

Here lies a easily overlooked group of people: female workers. They were not background figures beside the machinery, but the decision-makers that machines could not replace. Every slice of pineapple passed through their eyes and knives. The factory thus provided shuttle buses, dormitories, and three meals a day, attracting women from various townships into a two-shift production system. Images preserved by CNA from 1958 allow us to still see the Taitung summer production line upheld by a large number of female workers. ^{2 9}

Curator's Note: If "industrialization" consists only of factories, equipment, and export figures, it misses the most important layer: whose hands turned agricultural products into commodities the world could trust?

After Two Ships Were Returned

Initially, Sugar Phoenix had to face not quantity, but hygiene. Taishu sent two ships of pineapple cans to the United States, but they were denied entry due to high mold contamination. This failure forced the government to assemble an agricultural recovery committee, National Taiwan University, and other professionals into a 28-person project team, transforming the factory item by item—from window screens and water quality to restrooms and hygiene training for female workers. ³

In 1959, Sugar Phoenix finally passed US inspection. This turning point is interesting: Taiwan did not first have "world-class" quality to gain market access. It was only after the ships were returned that it restructured hygiene standards, factory equipment, and labor flows into a system capable of export. ³

The numbers rose quickly. Taiwan's pineapple can export volume increased from 830,000 boxes in 1957 to 1.74 million boxes in 1959. It reached 4.43 million boxes in 1969. The Taitung Sugar Factory pineapple plant set an annual production record of 850,000 boxes in 1964, becoming one of Taiwan's largest pineapple factories. ^{3 9}

Research and official historical statistics use different statistical bases; some record "total Taiwan export volume," while others record "single factory annual output." They cannot be simply added together. What is certain is that from the 1950s to the early 1970s, pineapple cans connected agriculture, production lines, ports, foreign exchange, and the development of eastern Taiwan into a single industrial chain. ^{1 3 10}

Third in the World, Then a Different Path

In the late Japanese colonial period, Taiwan's pineapple processing was the world's third-largest center. After the war, it also stood at the forefront of canned pineapple exports. The Dashi Taifang Pineapple Canning Plant, introduced by the Ministry of Culture, is a surviving Japanese colonial-era pineapple canning industrial building in Taiwan. In the 1930s, there were 81 pineapple factories in Taiwan; after the war, only four remained. The pineapple factory, restored in 2017 and reopened in 2018, now displays over 50 historical can labels. ⁵

The industry later lost out to two changes. Production costs in the Philippines, Thailand, and other places were lower, while Taiwan's wages rose. Simultaneously, Taiwan's own consumers began to prefer fresh, high-sugar, and bred pineapple varieties. Academic research indicates that from 1956 to 1976, pineapples were mainly used for export cans, reaching a production peak around 1971, after which the industry shifted to the domestic fresh fruit market. ^{6 10}

After 1986, the focus of breeding work clearly shifted to fresh fruit varieties. A 2011 study recorded that in 2008, Taiwan planted approximately 10,613 hectares of pineapples, with a fresh fruit output of 452,060 metric tons; the "Tai Nong 17" variety accounted for over 90% of the market. Pineapples did not leave Taiwan's land; they simply changed from "export cans" to "domestic fresh fruit." ¹¹

This also explains why today's pineapple memory often skips the can and jumps directly to pineapple cakes, Golden Diamond pineapples, and the "Wang Lai" (prosperity) of the New Year. Articles on pineapple cakes can explain how a souvenir globalized. Pineapple cans, however, leave another question: How did a country, with limited resources, turn a fruit into a factory, jobs, and foreign exchange?

A Can's Resume: From Orchard to Port

This table looks like a factory process; in fact, it is also a map of Taiwan. Fengshan and Dashi illustrate the industry's early starting points; Yuanlin and Changhua illustrate the density of central Taiwan's raw materials and factories; Taitung shows how the post-war state used food processing as a tool for eastern development. ^{1 5 3}

Tinplate is particularly key. Fruit rots, but iron cans can stretch time. But iron cans also connected Taiwan to international politics, because wartime steel embargoes caused shortages of canning materials, and post-war US aid became an important condition for restoring production. ^{1 2}

Therefore, the "sweetness" of pineapple cans is not the whole story. Syrup is only added last; before that, there are variety selection, farmer contract farming, worker training, equipment investment, and export inspection. Before food is served at the table, it has already undergone an order maintained jointly by the state, enterprises, and labor.

Cans Didn't Disappear; They Became Heritage

A study from National Cheng Kung University places Taiwan's canning industry in a longer industrial history: canning factories increased from 10 in 1946 to 249 in 1978. After 1990, the production system collapsed, and today only a few old factories still produce traditional tinplate cans. Pineapple was the starting point of this industrial chain, later extending to mushrooms, asparagus, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, tangerines, tomatoes, and aquatic products. ¹²

Thus, pineapple cans are not just an "old flavor eliminated by the times." They allow us to see that Taiwan's industrialization once grew inside a fruit: farmland had to be cleared, varieties improved, tinplate acquired, female workers trained, products passed foreign inspection, and localities could prosper because of a factory.

Walking into the Dashi pineapple factory today, you see exhibitions, labels, and restored red-brick architecture. In Taitung, the Sugar Phoenix factory leaves behind memories of local development and labor. Cans are no longer Taiwan's most important pineapple commodity, but they demonstrated to later fresh pineapples, pineapple cakes, and other processed foods one thing: once food is made into a form that can be preserved, transported, and inspected, it begins to participate in a society's destiny.

Pineapple cans also paved the way for other foods. A study from National Cheng Kung University points out that after the successful trial production of mushroom cans in 1957, mushrooms, asparagus, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, tangerines, tomatoes, and aquatic products successively joined the processing system. Cans were no longer just the single story of pineapple, but became a factory language for the post-war "cultivating industry through agriculture, developing agriculture through industry." ¹²

This language is still hidden in today's food: what you see in convenience stores are shelf life, weight, and inspection labels. What you see in old factories is tinplate, conveyor belts, and worker stations. Separated by half a century, both answer the same thing: how to make a local flavor recognizable, tradable, and memorable after leaving its place of origin.

Further Reading

Archives and Records Administration, Executive Yuan: Golden Years: Taiwan Pineapple Cans Marketed Globally

Ministry of Culture: Taiwan Pineapple Museum

References