TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — China has announced that it will resume imports of sugar apples from Taiwan if they are sourced from registered packhouses and orchards.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) made the announcement on Tuesday (June 20), with a spokesperson linking the decision to a recent visit to the Straits Forum made by Taiwan’s Kuomintang (KMT). TAO Deputy Director Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) said KMT Vice Chair Andrew Hsia (夏立言) and Taitung County Mayor Yao Ching-ling (饒慶鈴) (who both attended the forum) have been pushing to resume exports of various types of sugar apples from Taiwan to China for some time.

“(Hsia and Yao) have organized reforms to the industry that have ensured the resumption of sugar apple exports to the mainland,” Zhu said, per CNA.

China suspended imports of Taiwan’s sugar apples in September 2021, after it claimed bacteria harmful to crops were detected in some of the Taiwanese fruit’s leaves.

Andrew Hsia (center) departs for the Straits Forum on June 16. (CNA photo)