US cherry farmers started 2020 with a disappointing decision from the International Trade Commission on imports from Turkey. Now, they’ve ended the year with good news about exports to Taiwan.
Just last week, Taiwan’s government exempted US cherry juice from a 15 percent import tariff. The change could pave the way for increased sales to that nation.
Record-eagle.com quoted Nels Veliquette, vice president and CFO for Cherries R Us/Cherry Ke and member of the board of directors at Shoreline Fruit LLC, as saying on the Taiwan situation: “It’s a great opportunity for us — a new market. Korea and China are both good markets. Trade war and COVID notwithstanding, there were bright areas for us in 2020. The difference is, today if you want to sell cherry juice from the US into Taiwan, you can pick up the phone and it’s 15 percent cheaper than it was yesterday and we didn’t have to lower our price.”
Imports from Turkey
Despite the ITC ruling, imports into the US from Turkey were limited in 2020. “The thing that has most affected the imports is COVID,” Veliquette said. “We have a bit of a reprieve because of the complications with shipping between countries. But as soon as that’s over, I expect them to come back after this market. In the meantime, we still have an ongoing customs case on trans-shipment of concentrate through Brazil. That’s still just in the investigative stage. Nothing has happened on that one yet.”
Exports to Taiwan
But the US cherry industry has been working for years to open export opportunities to Taiwan. “A couple of years ago when the Cherry Marketing Institute went to Taiwan, they were made aware of the difficulties in importing because of the 15 percent tariff. While there were businesses in Taiwan that were interested in cherry juice, they talked about the issue with the tariff.”
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