Somewhere at the confluence of politics, commerce and shared values driving a recent wave of Canadian fascination with Taiwan, there were the island’s “freedom pineapples.”
In 2021, imports of the fruit enjoyed a spike in interest internationally when China banned them from its market.
Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry urged “like-minded friends” around the world to stand up to China by buying “freedom pineapples,” and the phenomenon took off.
At Kuohua Trading Co., a Taiwanese supermarket in Richmond, B.C., a member of the sales staff said on Friday that while they only imported a small number of pineapples during the campaign, they sold quickly and created word-of-mouth advertising on social media.
“Word spreads quickly online,” she said.
Overall Canadian trade with Taiwan is up sharply. There has also been a spate of visits by Canadian politicians, despite a lack of formal diplomatic relations.
Canada-China ties might be chilly, but Taiwan—which split from mainland China amid a civil war in 1949—is hot right now.
Lihsin Angel Liu, director-general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vancouver and Taiwan’s main representative in Western Canada, said part of that…
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