Pineapple production in Taiwan facts for kids
Did you know that pineapple is a super popular fruit grown in Taiwan? It's one of the most important crops for farmers there. Taiwan is famous for growing many different kinds of delicious pineapples, which are enjoyed by people all over the world.
Contents
Where Do Pineapples Grow in Taiwan?
Pineapple farms in Taiwan are mostly found in the middle and southern parts of the island. The biggest area for growing pineapples is Pingtung County, where about 30% of all Taiwanese pineapples come from. Other important places include Kaohsiung (14%), Tainan (14%), Chiayi County (13%), and Nantou County (12%). You can also find some pineapple farms in Hualien County and Taitung County.
What Kinds of Pineapples Grow in Taiwan?
Taiwan grows over 90 different types of pineapples! That's a lot of variety. However, one type is super popular and makes up about 84% of all pineapples grown. This is the Golden Diamond Pineapple, also known as Tainung 17.
Other popular types include:
- Winter Honey (Tainung 13)
- Milky (Tainung 20)
- Sugar-Apple (Tainung 4)
- Perfume (Tainung 11)
The Smooth Cayenne was the first type of pineapple brought to Taiwan a long time ago, during the Japanese colonial period. It's still grown today. The Golden Diamond Pineapple became very popular because many people in China loved it, which made its price go up. Now, Taiwanese farmers are looking to grow more of the other types of pineapples to sell to different countries.
How Do Pineapples Help Taiwan's Economy?
Taiwan grows a lot of pineapples every year, usually around 420,000 tons! A small part of this, about 11%, is sent to 16 different countries and regions around the world. For a long time, most of these exported pineapples, about 90%, went to Mainland China. For example, in 2020, Taiwan sent over 41,000 tons of pineapples to Mainland China, which was worth a lot of money, about NT$1.5 billion (New Taiwan Dollars).
Other countries that buy Taiwanese pineapples include Japan (2,160 tons in 2020), Hong Kong (1,186 tons), and Singapore (421 tons). In 2021, Mainland China stopped buying pineapples from Taiwan. This led to a special movement called "freedom pineapples", where people in Taiwan and other countries bought more Taiwanese pineapples to support the farmers.
Pineapple Fun for Visitors
If you're interested in learning even more about pineapples, you can visit the Taiwan Pineapple Museum. It's a great place to discover the history and importance of pineapples in Taiwan!
