The Chinese mainland has come to the rescue of Taiwan fruit farmers by purchasing 78 million yuan (about 10.2 million U.S. dollars) worth of fruit from the island province, a mainland official said Wednesday.

Li Weiyi, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, told a press conference that between January 2005 and April 2007 the mainland has purchased more than 8,700 tons of fruit from Taiwan.

At the request of Taiwan's Kuomintang Party, Li said, the mainland activated an emergency mechanism, arranging for mainland enterprises to buy 300 tons of bananas and 1200 tons of oranges.

"These measures have effectively helped Taiwan farmers solve the problem of fruit oversupply," Li said.

Li pointed out that the mainland had scrapped tariffs on 15 kinds of Taiwan fruit in August 2005.

Source: Xinhuahua