Just months after regaining entry to Taiwan, South African apples have lost market access again after a finding of codling moth. South African apple exports to Taiwan have been suspended after Taiwan’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency (APHIA) found a live codling moth on a shipment at its Keelung branch.
South Africa’s Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) was notified of the suspension of access by APHIA last Wednesday 24 October. It was advised to suspend the issuance of phytosanitary and pre-cooling certificates with immediate effect.
Consignments that were already on the water as of 24 October would still be accepted, APHIA said, albeit with more stringent inspections, according to a statement from DALRRD.
The news comes as a blow for the South African industry and government, which only recently reopened the Taiwan market after considerable effort.
Taiwan suspended access for South African apples in May 2023 after finding codling moth in shipments. Imports only resumed in May 2024.
South Africa shipped no apples to Taiwan between July 2023 and June 2024. The US was the chief beneficiary, filling the supply gap and shipping a total 64,694 tonnes, which gave it 46 per cent share of Taiwan’s apple import market, according to TDA data cited in the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service Fresh Deciduous Fruit Annual 2024.
The US is once again in pole position to take advantage of the absence of South African apples with its 2024/25 season getting under way.
Prior to losing access, South African shipped 9,681 tonnes of apples to Taiwan in 2022/23 (July to June) and 12,461 tonnes in 2021/22, according to TDA figures.
The latest suspension of access for South African apples comes less than a week after the South African government asked Taiwan to move its liaison office out of the administrative capital, Pretoria.
The move, which was announced by South Africa’s Foreign Ministry, aimed to underline the “non-diplomatic nature of the relationship between the Republic of South Africa and Taiwan”, according to a report from Deutsche Welle (DW).
The South African Foreign Ministry said it had given Taiwan six months to relocate its unofficial embassy, which is known as the Taipei Liaison Office. The ministry said the mission would be renamed as Taipei’s Trade Office and moved to Johannesburg, South Africa’s commercial capital, according to DW.
China is South Africa’s largest trade partner and both states are members of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, which held their annual summit last week in the Russian city of Kazan.
