The first shipment of zero-tariff fruits from Taiwan entered east China's Xiamen City, which faces Taiwan across the Taiwan Straits, on August 25 and was transferred to other mainland cities.

The shipment, composed of guava, pineapple, wax-apple, grapefruits and mango, weighed at 6,371 kg and was loaded in Kao Hsiung City in Taiwan on Monday.

After passing through customs quarantine inspections, the fruits were sent immediately to the Zhongpu Fruit Wholesale Market in Xiamen, where sales agents waiting on tiptoes retailed them into big cities such as Hangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing.

The shipment was exempted from tariff worth 5,926.06 yuan (about 760 US dollars) and value-added tax worth 770.4 yuan (about99 US dollars), which means a more than one yuan cut in every kilogram of fruits from Taiwan.

The importer of the shipment, Xiamen Chengxingtai Import and Export Co. Ltd., said that the company would have another shipment of Taiwan fruits to come next Monday. Starting from September, the company will have eight shipments of Taiwan fruits go through Xiamen Customs a month, which means some 40 tons of fruit a month.

The company said that the larger the import is, the more profit it will make.

The Chinese mainland has scrapped import taxes on 15 kinds of Taiwanese fruits, including pineapples, cherimoyas, pawpaws, carambolas, mangos, guavas, wax-apples, pinangs, grapefruits, jujubes, coconuts, loquats, plums, peaches, and persimmons.

Source:Xinhua