TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan will likely start importing mangosteen fruit from Thailand in late July, as a 16-year ban on the Southeast Asian tropical fruit will be lifted soon, said the country’s Council of Agriculture (COA).

The import of mangosteen fruit to Taiwan has been suspended since 2003 due to the spread of fruit flies, bactrocera carambolae and bactrocera papayae, in the fruit which are prevalent in Southeast Asia.

Over the past seven to eight years, Thailand has continued to improve its biosecurity and quarantine measures to tackle the fruit fly problem, COA Deputy Minister Chen Chun-chi (陳駿季) told Central News Agency on Monday (May 13).

The mangosteen fruit from Thailand has recently fulfilled the import requirements of horticultural produce from COA’s Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ), which issued a public notice of the matter on April 26.

The notice period will last through June 26, followed by a final review, said Chen Tzu-wei (陳子偉), an official from BAPHIQ, on Monday. The bureau will gather comments from different sectors before opening Taiwan's markets to imports of the fruit, possibly as soon as the end of July, he added.

The import of mangosteen fruit is expected to have a little impact on local farmers, since the quantity of the homegrown ones is low, according to Chen Tzu-wei.