Taiwan Fruit Kingdom: This Island Cultivates Every Piece of Fruit as Life and Memory

At 5 in the morning in the Yujing Douliuzai village, a thin mist still covered the sun-facing hillside. A fruit farmer tore an Irwin from its paper bag, and his fingertips immediately became sticky with juice. The great-grandfather of this mango was one of five varieties brought to Taiwan by researcher Lu Chi-lin from Florida, USA, in 1954¹. The Irwin variety itself was born in 1939 through natural cross-pollination between seedlings of Lippens and Haden at the F.D. Irwin home in Miami, USA².

In 1962, farmer Cheng Han-chi of Yujing planted the first batch of Irwins nationwide—one hundred trees—in his field that originally grew sugarcane and sweet potatoes. That year brought Taiwan's most severe frost, and only four trees survived³. The first harvest was in 1965. In the annual report of the Yujing Farmers' Association in 1967, it was written that the Irwin mango yield for that year was NT$300 million, which is equivalent to about NT$2 billion today³. In 1973, the government established Taiwan's first specialized mango area in Douliuzai village.

What hands an Irwin goes through after being picked from a tree—what this island treats every piece of fruit as—is a story more three-dimensional than the four words "Fruit Kingdom."

From Florida to Yujing: The Bloodline History of Aiwen

Taiwan is called the Fruit Kingdom, and many people assume this refers only to its natural geography. The Tropic of Cancer passes through the center; the south is subtropical, the north is temperate, and the central mountain areas are temperate. Coupled with the Kuroshio Current, the south is warmer than other latitudes—this geographical endowment is correct. But this is just the skeleton, not the flesh.

What truly turned this soil into cultivated varieties were generations of named breeders. In 1912, Japanese agricultural scientist Isonaga Kichi came to the Taiwan Governor's Office Agricultural Experiment Station as a technician and was promoted to director of the Taichung Agricultural Experiment Station in 1915 ⁴. He began hybridizing "Kuchi" and "Shinri," two strains of Japanese japonica rice, with Momonaga Ren starting in 1921. In 1929, he developed No. 65 for the Taichung plain that could adapt to Taiwan's flatlands. On April 24, 1926, Governor Isedokio formally named it "Penglai Rice" at the 19th Great Japan Rice Association meeting in the Taipei Railway Hotel ⁴. The success of the rice cultivation system also laid the infrastructure for tropical fruit research.

In April 1939, the Fengshan Tropical Horticulture Experimental Branch was established in Tiao-song Township, Fengshan County, Kaohsiung Prefecture, with land donated by the "Taiwan Contract Pineapple Company" ⁵. After being received post-war in October 1945, it was only renamed a "Branch Office" in August 1949. Today, this remains the only institution in Taiwan whose primary research subject is tropical fruits ⁵; papayas, mangoes, star apples, lychees, passion fruit, sugar apples, jujubes, guavas, cherimoya, and dragon fruits are all bred here.

The story of mangoes is particularly interesting. Aiwen came from Florida. Atemoya (pineapple-custard apple) was created in 1908 by P.J. Wester and Edward Simmonds in Florida, USA, through the interspecific hybridization of cherimoya and rough custard apple ⁶. Golden Diamond Pineapple (NAFA No. 17) was named by the Chiayi Branch of the Agricultural Experiment Station in April 1998, with parents being a cross between "Normal Kaiying Strain" and "Rough Leaf Strain" ⁷. Weighing about 1.4 kilograms per fruit and having a sugar content of 14.1 degrees, it now accounts for over 80% of Taiwan's pineapple cultivation area.

Aiwen mango originated in Florida, USA, and became famous nationwide after being introduced to Yujing, Tainan, in 1962; it is now cultivated throughout Taiwan. This basket was grown by Chen Wei-cheng, a farmer from Fangliao, Pingtung, and won second prize in a mango festival competition. Photo: Penguin, Norway, 2009. CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

[!NOTE]
The lineage of "indigenous varieties" is actually a history of global hybridization. Aiwen's mother tree comes from Florida, and the hybridization pattern of Atemoya was completed in the United States in 1908; the parent Rough strain for Golden Diamond was also introduced from abroad. The framework of "pure indigenous" does not hold up; the true narrative of Taiwanese varieties is one of "introduction, local domestication, and reverse export."

Some stories are closer to local folklore. Huang Jin-huang, born in 1932 and originally from Zhukang, Chiayi, later moved to Liuqi, Kaohsiung. After graduating from elementary school, he had no formal breeding training ⁸. During his military service in 1958, he observed crop hybridization pollination at an agricultural reform station near Tainan and "understood the principle." After being discharged, he returned to his hometown and bred a cross using "Kate" as the father and Indian "White" as the mother over eight years.

Mangoes bloom at night, and their flowers are very small. Village head Wang Ming-yang remembers Huang Jin-huang from those years: "At that time, he would take a flashlight to the orchard; no one knew what he was doing" ⁸. In 1966, Jinhuang was developed. It gradually became popular in the 1980s. It won the Shennong Award twice in 1984 and 1991. Later, due to being too easy to propagate and oversupply, its price dropped from NT$100 per jin to NT$10. Huang Jin-huang passed away of cancer in his later years while still worrying about market regulation for farmers. He died on March 6, 2016, at the age of 85.

In 1995, farmer Guo Wen-zhong from Yujing bred "Yuwen" using Jinhuang as the mother and Aiwen as the father, combining the place name "Yu" with his surname "Wen" ⁹. In Taitung, No. 1 Taitung (Dulan strain) was named in 2001, No. 2 Taitung was selected at a farm in the suburbs by Huang Zhen-xiu in 2008, and No. 3 Taitung Greenbao was developed in 2018 as an interspecific cross between cherimoya and passion fruit, which is heat-tolerant and cold-resistant ¹⁰. The lineage of mandarin (Wen-tan) is even older: it was introduced from Zhangzhou, Fujian, in the 40th year of Kangxi (1701), and around 1850, Guo Yao and his son Guo Jiu developed high-quality varieties, laying the foundation for the Mandu mandarin brand ¹¹.

Flowers Under the Flashlight, and Farms of Sixty-Four Years

The image of Huang Jin-huang using a flashlight in a farm in 1958 can be traced back to Isonaga Kichi under a microscope at the Taichung Experimental Station in 1912, and forward to Wu Ching-jin, a production and sales manager in his sixties in Yujing today. Breeding in Taiwan has never been completed solely in a laboratory; it is an accumulation passed down through generations by farmers who pour their bodies into the process.

The problem is that this generation of farmers is rapidly disappearing. The 2020 Agricultural Census showed the average age of agricultural operators was 64.4 years, an increase of 0.9 years from 2015¹². The proportion of young farmers under 45 was 39.61% in 1980 but only 5.64% in 2015. The proportion of older farmers over 65 rose from 15.29% to 45.96% during the same period¹². This is not an abstract narrative of "farmers' hard work"; it is the literal aging of the farm itself.

There are many specific examples of young farmers. Kuo Tai-cheng in Qishan, Kaohsiung, a second-generation farmer, co-promoted "Banana Rice Guai Guai" after returning to his hometown, selling 60,000 bags in 10 days¹³. Hung Ming-wei from Daliao, Kaohsiung, a second-generation pineapple farmer, bluntly stated: "The government must have spent hundreds of millions encouraging people from other industries to return to farming, but students majoring in agriculture keep leaving"¹⁴. Chen Chao-yuan, chairman of the Young Farmers Association in Pingtung County, said that the survival rate of young farmers returning home is "only over 30%"¹⁴.

Liu Yu-chang, who graduated from the Department of Landscape Architecture at National Taiwan University, chose to pursue organic farming, saying: "Without family backing, you really have to rely on luck and chance"¹⁴. An anonymous agricultural student nicknamed "A-Hua," with initial capital of 30,000 NTD, had all his crops destroyed by a typhoon and heavy rain, resulting in zero income for nine consecutive months. He survived by working as a laborer for 100 NTD per day before finally leaving farming¹⁴. These names rarely appear in the media; most do not make it into the spotlight of "model farmer stars."

[!IMPORTANT]
The narrative of model farmer stars has selective bias. Only the three who survive are featured in reports; the seven who leave are rarely tracked. When young farmer stories read as only "returning, innovating, and succeeding," one must ask: what about those who left?

The land itself is also fragmenting. Approximately 76% of agricultural operations are less than one hectare, with an average farm size of 1.1 hectares, resulting in fragmented plots¹⁵. Article 16 of the Agricultural Development Act stipulates that if the area owned by each person after dividing a plot does not reach 0.25 hectares, further division is prohibited, which is intended to prevent land fragmentation but also makes it harder for young farmers to acquire land. The "small landowners, large professional farmers" policy was introduced in 2009 to encourage older farmers to rent land to professional farmers to expand scale; a review by the Legislative Yuan in Year 108 found that the annual income of large professional farmers was "not increasing but decreasing"¹⁵.

The fields are becoming quieter, and there is an increasing number of foreign accents. In 2019, the first batch of legal agricultural migrant workers arrived in Taiwan: 7 from Thailand, with 2 working as dairy farmers and 5 in exhibition farming¹⁶. The Ministry of Agriculture estimated that there was a chronic labor shortage of about 10,000 people and a seasonal shortage of about 250,000 person-times. In June 2023, after policy relaxation, small farms with an area over 2 hectares could apply for migrant workers, raising the ratio of foreign laborers to local farmers from 35% to 1:1¹⁶. The total quota of migrant workers increased from 6,000 to 12,000, primarily from Vietnam and Indonesia.

However, there is still a gap between system design and on-the-ground reality. Taking the figures from October 15, Year 111 (2022) as an example, 271 exhibition agencies applied for 4,680 agricultural migrant workers, but the Ministry of Agriculture approved only 162 agencies and 1,218 workers, with an agency approval rate of 60% and a worker approval rate of only 26%¹⁷. When legal channels failed to function, farmers resorted to relying on undocumented migrants to fill the gaps. The attrition rate of migrant workers in agriculture, forestry, and aquaculture reached 17.94%, with over 85,000 cumulative cases of missing migrants nationwide¹⁷. The Control Yuan's language is strong: this has "developed into an abnormal force supporting Taiwan's agricultural backbone"¹⁷.

Calls from the Binhai Auctioneers at 3:20 AM

How does a mango picked from Yujing's hillside end up on a Taipei dining table? The answer lies in the production and sales system, found in the early morning fruit markets and the steam-heat treatment facilities in the mountains.

The National Gastronomy and Agricultural Products Marketing Company (NAFA) was established in 1974. Its first wholesale market was located in Wanhua, and its second wholesale market (Binhai Market) was established in 1985 near Neihu¹⁸. With 500 employees, it transacts 2,000 tons of fruits and vegetables daily, supplying the 3.5 million people of Greater Taipei. Approximately 70% of the produce from Taipei, New Taipei, and Keelung goes through the first market, and price fluctuations here directly affect consumers' pockets.

At 1:30 AM, freight workers begin their duties, verifying unloading sequences. At 2:00 AM, auctioneers inspect quality classifications and set reserve prices. The auction starts at 3:20 AM. Buyers bid through gestures or speech. Binhai auctioneers complete 130,000 transactions and process 2,300 tons of sales per day, with a transaction occurring every 7 to 10 seconds¹⁸. It concludes by 7:00 AM.

Fruit stalls on the first floor of Taipei Second Fruits and Vegetables Wholesale Market (Binhai Market). This is one of Taiwan's largest fruit auction markets, opening around 3 AM daily, with a transaction occurring every 7 to 10 seconds. Photo: Hsien-shi Sheng, 2016. CC0 1.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

[!TIP]
Auctioneers undergo performance reviews every three years; failure results in demotion back to stock handlers. One must have a university degree and at least three or five years of experience as a handler in the wholesale market to qualify for the test. "This is an honest profession," said Lin Wei-chi, a 31-year-old cabbage auctioneer, "there might only be good business days about 100 times a year; the remaining 200 are spent struggling." He once witnessed prices drop from NT$15 per kilogram in the morning to just 2 cents in the evening¹⁹.

The commission structure involves deductions of 4% to 4.5% by various agricultural cooperatives and 1.5% by NAFA, with the remainder going to the farmers²⁰. Although the system's commissions are low, there have historically been allegations regarding subjective pricing by auctioneers, off-site negotiations, and "sandwich scams." The political storm triggered when Wu Yin-ning served as NAFA General Manager in 2018 pushed this early morning auction market onto national news headlines²⁰.

Leaving the auction market, we proceed to the Yujing steam-heat treatment facility. This is the technical checkpoint for exports to Japan and South Korea. The principle involves using high heat to kill fruit fly eggs; the standard specification for export to Japan is 46.5 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes, followed by cooling back to room temperature²¹. Quarantine officials from Japan and South Korea are stationed here, selecting the largest mango from each basket, inserting a temperature probe, and placing that mango back into the batch at the location where the temperature rises the slowest to ensure the entire fruit reaches the required standard.

Over the past 20 years, Yujing has used two older steam-heat equipment units commissioned in 2005, with a total capacity of 8 tons. The old equipment results in thermal damage to about 25% of the fruit. Only from 2024 to 2025 did the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) contribute 85% and the Tainan City Government contribute 15%, investing NT$54.051 million to purchase two Japanese containerized steam-heat equipment units with a total capacity of 10 tons²¹. The new equipment has a near 100% yield rate, reducing processing time from 4.5 hours to 3 hours, and extending storage life from 8 days to 14 days. This lagging infrastructure investment, which is 20 years behind export demands, represents another unglamorous side of the fruit kingdom.

In terms of export performance, Taiwan's agricultural exports reached $4.89 billion in 2024, an increase of 4.7% year-on-year²². Japan is the largest market for fresh fruits from Taiwan; in 2023, sales to Japan totaled NT$22.2 billion, accounting for 47.4% of the value of fresh fruit exports. Eleven types of fresh fruit can be exported to Japan: mangoes, grapes, papaya, langsat, tangerines, pomelos, mandarins, lychees, jujubes, bananas, and pineapples²².

In June 2026, during the mango peak season when prices were sweet, the MOA simultaneously promoted new overseas markets, extending its reach to France. CCTV Evening News reports.

However, not all shipments succeeded. In March 2021, China banned pineapples; Japan absorbed over 90% of the supply, exporting 19,400 tons annually²³. In September 2021, China also banned sugar apples and star fruit, leading NAFA to target sales of 5,000 tons of pineapples and sugar apples. Southeast Asia was a successful destination, with Taiwanese businesses purchasing in Malaysia and Singapore. Canada failed; air freight costs rose from NT$100 to NT$300 per kilogram, and container shipping cost $20,000 USD for a full container. Producers calculated the cost per box at NT$3,500, but sugar apples imported from Brazil into Canada were only sold for 39.5 CAD (about NT$893)²⁴. Producers described their situation exporting to Canada as "a distant fire that cannot save a nearby blaze."

Taitung is one of the main production areas for sugar apples (番荔枝) in Taiwan. The success or failure of reselling pineapples and sugar apples to Southeast Asia and Canada after China's 2021 ban largely rested on these farmers. Photo: Sengkang, 2006. CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Night Markets, Pomelo Hats for Mid-Autumn Festival Offerings

What happens to a single Aiwen (a type of fruit)? If it doesn't go to the auction house or the steam heat treatment facility, where does it end up? The answer is usually on the family dining table. A large part of how Taiwanese people relate to fruit is established in domestic settings.

In the grandparents' generation, fruits were mostly picked from their own yards or bought by weight at the market; peeling and plating them was a ritual for family gatherings. In the middle-aged generation, there are night market platters and post-meal fruit. The younger generation may be able to buy imported substitutes in supermarkets year-round, thus losing the sense of seasonality—like "lychees in May, mangoes in June, longans in July, and pomelos in August."

The fruit stalls at night markets are a crucial link in this generational line. Tomatoes mixed with soy sauce paste and ginger slivers, starfruit dipped in plum powder, or pineapples skewered on bamboo sticks—a double-or triple combination for 100 NTD is the closing act of countless nights for eighteen-year-olds. On June 2, 2024, after giving a lecture at National Taiwan University, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang visited a fruit stall with 43 years of history at Tonghua Night Market (Linjiang Street Night Market). The Google store name was "Grandma's Premium Cut Fruit." He bought over ten bags at once, favoring lychees and small tomatoes, spending 2,300 NTD on one occasion²⁵. This news story brought several generations of night market youth to the forefront simultaneously.

The Mid-Autumn Festival table has long been tied to Madu (Madou) pomelos. Introduced from Zhangzhou, Fujian, in 1701 during the Kangxi 40th year, they were considered "imperial fruit" by the Japanese Emperor due to their unique sweet flavor during the Japanese colonial period²⁶. The homophone between "pomelo" (柚 - yòu) and "to protect/bless" (佑 - yòu) means that these fruits are in season just before and around Mid-Autumn Festival. Children wearing pomelo rinds on their heads as hats is a shared childhood memory across generations for many Taiwanese people.

Madou pomelos from Tainan. Introduced from Zhangzhou, Fujian, in 1701; high-grade varieties were bred by Guo Yao and his son Guo Jiu around 1850; they were once imperial fruit presented to the Emperor during the Japanese colonial period. Photo: Mori / Presidential Office, 2019. CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

On the Bai Bai (ancestor worship) offering table, there are rules regarding the types of fruit. "Three Sacrifices and Four Fruits" is the rhythm between the family and the gods; three sacrifices are chosen from five options, while four fruits refer to "seasonal fresh fruits," which are often offered in odd numbers (1, 3, or 5)²⁷. The Earth God requires jujubes (zaozi, early harvest), deities require oranges (juzi, auspicious) and apples (ping'an, peace), while bananas (zhao - inviting/attracting), pears (li - leaving), and plums (li) are avoided when visiting the sick.

Taboos during the seventh lunar month offerings are even stricter. Folk customs fear that pineapples (wanglai, prosperity) might bring too much luck to "good brothers" (a term used for prosperous people); a bunch of fruits like lychees or grapes metaphorically suggests good brothers gathering in groups; and bananas, plums, and pears combined are feared to invoke the negative spirit through the Tâi-gí homophone "invite you here"²⁸. However, the Ministry of Agriculture has officially debunked this: the Tâi-gí meaning of bananas, jinjao, is originally wealth attraction. The Taiwan Folk Magazine records a tradition where bananas are distributed to friends and relatives at offerings. The idea that "bananas cannot be offered in the seventh lunar month" is an error passed down by later generations²⁸. Academician Li Feng-ts'ang of the Academia Sinica also emphasized that homophones are one factor in forming ritual taboos, but these taboos often vary by time and place; he stated, "What should be valued more than the offerings is sincerity during worship"²⁸.

[!NOTE]
Folk taboos and official debunking are two voices on the same offering table. Which one is correct? Both are. Taboos are the rules of the elders in the family; official debunking is a historical accounting. This island can accommodate both layers coexisting without needing to reach a single conclusion.

Bananas in 1967, Pineapples in 2021, and Chilean Cherries in 2025

The journey of fruit from the dinner table to international shipping containers is long and often turbulent. Taiwan's fruits are among the few commodities on this island that have a distinct "brand" on the international stage, which also makes them prime targets for negotiation leverage.

Exporting bananas to Japan was an established route during the Japanese colonial period. The 1960s marked the era of the Banana Kingdom after World War II. In 1963, Japan liberalized imports, and in 1967, a peak year saw 27 million boxes exported, earning $62 million in foreign exchange—one-third of Taiwan's total foreign reserves that year²⁹. The Japanese market accounted for 80% of the sales. In 1969, the "Banana Ban Incident" erupted, leading to the imprisonment of Wu Zhen-rui, Chairman of the Fresh Produce Association, marking a turning point in the Banana Kingdom era.

In 2010, the Cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) was signed, which granted zero tariffs on 18 agricultural and fishery products from China, including Wenxin melon, king oyster mushrooms, bananas, oranges, lemons, melons, dragon fruit, tea, and lotus seeds³⁰. Pineapples were not among these 18 items. This became significant in 2021.

On February 26, 2021, the General Administration of Customs of China suddenly announced a suspension of Taiwanese pineapple imports starting March 1, citing quarantine issues. Before the ban, China accounted for 97% of Taiwan's pineapple exports³¹. On September 20, jackfruit and lotus seeds were also banned, with the same reason cited: mealybugs. In 2020, these two products accounted for 23% and 9.6% of total exports to China, respectively (57,000 tons of jackfruit and 50,000 tons of lotus seeds)³¹. In November 2021, Taiwan's resident representative at the WTO, Luo Chang-fa, raised "specific trade concerns," emphasizing that China's ban lacked scientific basis and exceeded the necessity stipulated by WTO agreements³¹.

In June 2026, the statement by political commissar Liang Wenjie that "Taiwanese people do not eat pineapple jackfruit" provoked backlash from farmers and opposition parties. More than four years after the ban, pineapples and jackfruits were redirected to the domestic market, remaining a sensitive nerve. (Reported by Public Television Evening News.)

Historians offer different interpretations of this event. Chang Wu-yue, Director of the Cross-Strait Research Center at Tamkang University, believes that the early harvest list was a political commitment that China could revoke as cross-strait relations deteriorated; meanwhile, the official stance of the Ministry of Agriculture emphasized that the 18 items were selected through industry consultation to meet the practical needs and export potential of farmers³⁰. The same list is viewed alternately as a political tool or an economic necessity.

The import line has recently shown some flexibility. In 2025, the value of imported fruits reached NT$30.2 billion, breaking the NT$30 billion mark for the first time, representing a 44.5% increase over five years³². The top three were apples at NT$9.02 billion, grapes at NT$4.45 billion, and cherries at NT$4.32 billion (a record high with a 23.8% annual increase). Taiwan's climate does not allow for large-scale cultivation of temperate apples, making reliance on imports a structural reality. Muscat grapes, which spread from the Shine Muscat variety in Japan to Korea and China, enter Taiwanese supermarkets through various channels; Japan reportedly loses over 10 billion yen annually because it has not protected its varietal rights³³.

Chilean cherries are another example that is easily misinterpreted. Media often reports "diversion away from China," but in reality, during the 2025/26 season, China still accounted for 87% of Chilean cherry exports (down from 92% the previous year), and Taiwan's annual increase of 45.1% was only marginal growth; in January 2026, Taiwan imported $27 million worth of Chilean cherries, ranking third globally, far below China's figure of $1.075 billion during the same period³⁴. Diversion does occur, but on a scale much smaller than what narratives suggest.

[!IMPORTANT]
The relationship between imports valued at NT$30.2 billion and a 20% decline in domestic production is not simply a story of "imports displacing local products." Tseng Wen-tsuo, Chairman of the Taiwan Fruit Importers Association, pointed out that most importers adopt strategies that do not overlap with Taiwanese agricultural products³². Concurrently, young fruit farmers are segmenting into high-value niche markets like pineapples and jackfruits, meaning the decline in domestic production does not entirely equate to industrial decline. Both lines are true.

Lychees: The Frontline of Extreme Climate Tides

Exports and imports are merely the surface tremors of a fruit kingdom. The real change lies beneath the soil, in the climate. Among all fruits, lychees are the most severely affected by climate change.

Fang Xin-xiu, an associate researcher at the Fengshan Tropical Horticulture Experimental Station, named this phenomenon "the frontline of extreme climate tides" ³⁵. This is because lychee flower bud differentiation requires sufficient low temperatures during winter—below 20 degrees and dry from November to January for normal flowering. Taiwan's winters are getting warmer, making this requirement increasingly difficult.

The numbers are brutal. In the early days, a single crop could yield 100,000 metric tons per year. In 2019, during the warmest winter in 70 years, average temperatures in Kaohsiung and Taichung reached 23.1 degrees and 20.2 degrees, respectively, resulting in losses exceeding NT$2 billion across Taiwan, with the annual yield dropping to a record low of 25,000 metric tons ³⁵. The 2024 estimate is over 50,000 metric tons, which still only reaches about 60% of the average from 2001 to 2010. Cultivated area has shrunk from approximately 12,000 hectares in 2000 to the current 9,000 hectares. The wholesale average price broke NT$100 for the first time in 2019, reaching a record high of NT$127 in 2024 ³⁵.

Ou Xian-long, the leader of a lychee production and sales team in Dahu District, Kaohsiung, recalls the past: "In the early years, although the wholesale price was not high, the yield was stable; with thin profits leading to high sales volume, the overall income was considerable. In recent years, even if the price is good, it is difficult to break even," he says ³⁵. "Growing lychees today is not as easy as before."

Besides climate, there are pests. The lychee stink bug was first discovered in Kinmen in 1999, invaded the Taiwan main island in 2008, and pest control agencies issued a warning in 2012 ³⁶. It has spread from Kaohsiung throughout North, Central, and South Taiwan. In addition to dragon fruit and lychees, it also harms street trees such as Taiwanese walnut and soapberry; you can see red specks all over the trunks of park trees in the summer. The stink bug sucks the sap from young buds, flower spikes, and immature fruits, causing flowers and fruits to drop and fruit skin discoloration, and it is also a vector for lychee leaf spot disease. Preliminary estimates suggest agricultural losses could account for 20% to 30% ³⁶.

The Oriental fruit fly is another regular visitor. It preys on guava, mangoes, lychees, muskmelons, wax apples, and dragon fruits. Control relies on three methods: sex pheromone trapping (monitoring methyl cinnamate every 10 days), parasitic wasps as natural enemies (Taiwanese surveys show a parasitization rate of over 74% in guavas), and bagging, which is most suitable for guava, wax apple, and mango ³⁷. Walking into a wax apple field, you see black netting covering the area, with each fruit meticulously wrapped in paper bags—this is the daily battle between farmers and the Oriental fruit fly.

A wax apple orchard in Pingtung. Bagging and black netting are daily processes for farmers combating the Oriental fruit fly, Photo: Su Yu-ren (Taiwan7007), CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

The three typhoons that made landfall consecutively in 2024 also caught farmers off guard. Kaimi landed in Nan'ao, Yilan, on July 25—the first typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan with tropical storm strength in eight years. Agricultural losses exceeded NT$2.4 billion, with Yunlin suffering the most damage and losing the most bananas ³⁸. Mandar arrived slowly in Kaohsiung in October, causing losses of NT$500 million to NT$600 million, affecting guavas, muskmelons, wax apples, and papayas; farmers felt the government underestimated the situation because it only accounted for fruits ready for harvest, not the small fruits and flower buds from three or four months out ³⁸. Kong-rei took away another NT$1.317 billion. The same group of fruit trees was hit by three typhoons in one year but could only receive disaster relief once.

Under all this pressure, a group of farmers are switching to organic farming. Taiwan's certified organic area increased from 7,569 hectares in 2017 to 20,304 hectares in 2024, growing by 2.68 times; the friendly farming area increased from 529 hectares to 6,708 hectares, growing by 12.68 times ³⁹. Together, they account for 3.47% of cultivated land. The passage of the Organic Agriculture Promotion Act in 2018 was a key accelerator.

She Mei-li started organic cultivation in 1991 with no experience, and by relying on self-study from classes and years of failure, she won the Shennong Award in 1999 ⁴⁰. Her core philosophy is: "Pests and diseases in organic farming cannot be controlled; they must be managed," allowing the farm ecosystem to achieve balance where pests are controlled by natural enemies. Weng Jin-xing, who previously worked in apparel processing, switched to organic farming in 2012, primarily growing dragon fruits and guavas, and kept chickens on his guava farm for weed control ⁴⁰. These stories do not appear in the memories of night market youth, but they are a quiet experiment deep within the orchards.

The Peelers

Writing this, the journey of one Aiwen has come to an end. From the hundred trees planted by Cheng Han-chi in the Yujing Douliuzai village in 1962, four survived: passing through the breeding base set up by Isojima Kichi by the rice paddy, through the nights when Huang Jin-huang used a flashlight, through the seven-second transaction sound from the Binjiang auctioneer, through the 30 minutes at 46.5 degrees Celsius in the Yujing heat treatment plant, through the temperature probe of the Japanese quarantine officer, and through the plate of 100 yuan piled on the table during Mid-Autumn Festival.

Finally, it rested on a dining table one afternoon, picked up by hands constantly peeling fruit.

Whose hands were they? You might remember them yourself. You might remember Grandma peeling apples until the juice stained her fingernails, remembering the weight of the pomelo peel worn as a hat after Mid-Autumn Festival, remembering the guava cut by Mom next to the lunchbox, and remembering your 18-year-old self in front of the night market glass cooler. You might also remember the ritual of taking out a plate of frozen mangoes from the storage box.

This island cultivates every piece of fruit as life and memory. The aspect of life is the breeding racks at the Agricultural Experiment Station, picking fruit at five in the morning on the slopes of Yujing, the Chinese accent of migrant workers from Indonesia and the Philippines in the orchards, and the constant tug-of-war between lychee scale insects, warm winters, and typhoons. The aspect of memory is the hands that peel fruit—a rhythm passed down across three generations' dining tables.

Further Reading

• Taiwanese Mangoes — From Aiwen to Yuwen: The Pedigree and Breeders of a Mango
• Madu Pomelo — The Old Trees of the Guo Family Over Five Generations and the Pomelo Peel Hats on Mid-Autumn Festival Tables
• Taiwan Night Markets — Fruit Platters in Glass Refrigerators and Aunties' Fruit Stalls at Tonghua Night Market
• Pineapple Sapodilla Incident — A Complete Record of the 2021 China Ban and Failed Orders to Canada
• Taiwan Agricultural Migrant Workers — Indonesian and Filipino Accents in Orchards and Gaps in the Legal System
• Organic Agriculture in Taiwan — Growth by 2.68 Times from 2017 to 2024 and Xie Mei-li's Ugly Pomelo
• Taiwan Street Trees — The Ecological Chain of the Taiwanese Gulmohur and Red Ladybug, and the Species Boundary Between Them and the Lychee Bug

Image Sources

This article uses 5 CC-licensed images + 2 official CCTV News videos, all cached in public/article-images/food/, to avoid hotlinking from source servers:

• Fangliao Aiwen Mango (hero) — Photo: Penguin, Norway, 2009-05-25, CC BY-SA 2.0
• Fruit Shops in Taipei Second Wholesale Market — Photo: Hsien-shi-sheng, 2016-07-31, CC0 1.0
• Sugar Apples in Taitung County — Photo: Sengkang, 2006-12-18, CC BY-SA 3.0
• Citrus maxima in Madou, Tainan — Photo: Mori / Presidential Office, 2019-08-30, CC BY 2.0
• Black Pearl Wax Apple Orchard in Pingtung — Photo: Su Yu-ren (Taiwan7007), CC BY 3.0
• Video 1: Mangoes in Season, Sweet Prices: Ministry of Agriculture Pushes Overseas Market into France | CCTV Midday News 20260624 (Official CCTV News Channel)
• Video 2: Liang Wenjie Says Taiwanese Don't Eat Pineapple Sugar Apples, Jiang Wan-an Calls It Preposterous | CCTV Evening News 20260620 (Official CCTV News Channel)

References