pineapple shipments saying 998 percent of imports in recent years had passed inspectionthe south where most of taiwans pineapples are grown is the traditional heartland of taiwans ruling democratic progressive partypolitical figures were quick to liken the ban to heavy tariffs china placed on certain australian products including wine when relations between those two countries took a diveremember australias freedom wine tweeted foreign minister joseph wu i urge likeminded friends around the globe to stand with taiwan and rally behind the freedompineappleback in taishan farmers say they have been delighted by the domestic drive to buy more pineapplesbut they caution against early declarations of victory given the harvest has only just begunnext month is when we will know if we have won or lost said min the plantation owner everyone is very nervousi am worried the domestic buying spree wont last when the harvest peaks next month added lee baiwei 28 saying half his crop would usually go to chinatseng chinyun a 60yearold rice farmer said she believed it was time for taiwan to diversify where it sells its products towe need to be stronger and stand on our own she declared taiwan is an independent country and we cant always rely on otherscollege student hsu yingchih 21 works parttime in the fruit packaging factory and has seen shifts dry up the last two weeksbut he doesnt think taiwan should cave to chinese pressuretaiwan is a country and one china is unacceptable he saidif we concede in order to hold talks on agricultural issues they will push the envelope further in other areas