According to the Council of Agriculture, the quantity of mangoes exported to Japan from 25th of May until the end of July had reached 448 tons, almost the same amount as last year. Since Irwin Mangoes production season is almost over, no more mango of this kind will be exported to Japan. Currently, the price of Irwin mangoes in the domestic market is NT$44.6 per kg.

The exportation period of mangoes to Japan originally ended in early August, but due to the damage brought about by the typhoon, farmers harvested earlier this year. The Japanese inspection and quarantine officers went back to Japan since their job finished.

The Council of Agriculture said that, in order to abide by the new rules of pesticide residue inspection of Japan implemented on 29th of May, the COA implemented a registration system that required all farmers and exporters engaged in the export of mangoes to Japan to register with the COA. The exporters of mangoes to Japan have to submit a list of the farms with whom they had trade agreements and report to the county government of those farms and register with the COA to get a serial number and coding if qualified.

Before the mangoes are harvested, officers of the Agriculture and Food Agency of COA will go with the exporters to do a sampling inspection. Only the farms that pass this sampling inspection could harvest and proceed to the pesticide residue inspection. The officers of Agriculture and Food Agency will issue on site the permission to those who pass the inspection. There are 468 farms that have passed the sampling inspection, a total of around 831hectares for this year.

A total of 13 cases were found to have the pesticide residues of Cypermethrin and Cyfluthrin that exceeded what Japan allowed. The 13 cases had a total volume of 22 tons, 4% of the total amount of exportation. COA found out that the exporters mixed the mangoes with pesticide residues with those that did not have agreement with them. For this, they were suspended from engaging in exportation for 3 months. The registration certificates of the producing farms involved are canceled too. A report on this matter had been sent to the Japanese government.

The Council of Agriculture said that the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine of COA worked with 3 officers from Japan on the inspection and quarantine process, as a way of promoting local fruits to Japan. By the end of July, a total of around 448 tons of mango had passed inspection and exported to Japan.

The Council of Agriculture said that they are going to invite all exporters to discuss the pesticide residue issue to look for ways to improve the situation recently. COA plans to complete the registration process of mango farms for 2007 export at the end of October this year.