In early September, the orchards around the small town of Ruisui on Taiwan's east coast were laden with pomelos. The fruit was due to be picked ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival, which was celebrated on 10 September. Yet this year, many local farmers gave up trying to sell their crop after a sharp drop in prices. This came after the Chinese government in Beijing announced in August that it would be banning imports of Taiwanese pomelos, a move widely seen as a way to punish Taiwan for receiving a visit that month from leading US politician Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
While Alicia Garcia Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific at investment bank Natixis, says that China's ban on Taiwanese pomelos is not a "big issue" for Taiwan, it has to be seen in the context of it being just one of many prohibitions that Beijing put in place last month.
Farmers in Ruisui usually export 70% of their pomelos to mainland China, so the ban will make it difficult for everyone to cover costs such as fertilizer and labor.
In total, China blocked imports of more than 2,000 different Taiwanese food stuffs, from fish and seaweed, to cooking oils, cakes and other fruits. This followed after previous bans of Taiwanese pineapples, and both wax and sugar apples (tropical fruits that don't look or taste like apples).
Source: bbc.com