Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture has fully resumed peach exports to Taiwan for the first time since shipments were halted following the 2011 nuclear disaster, marking another important step in the recovery of the region’s agricultural sector. Around 4.5 tons of peaches are scheduled to be shipped to Taiwan by September 11. The return to this market is particularly significant for local growers because Taiwan was the largest overseas destination for Fukushima peaches before the earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in March 2011. Annual shipments to Taiwan reached around 18.5 tons in 2010, before exports were effectively halted in the aftermath of the disaster. In subsequent years, Fukushima producers gradually developed other overseas markets, particularly in Southeast Asia, and total peach exports eventually recovered beyond their pre-disaster level. Access to Taiwan, however, remained limited for years.
The latest change became possible after Taiwan progressively eased restrictions introduced following the Fukushima accident and Japanese producers worked to meet the remaining import requirements. Two grading and packaging facilities in Fukushima Prefecture were recently approved for fruit exports to Taiwan following inspections by Taiwanese authorities. Limited shipments had already taken place in recent years, including around 50 kilograms in 2023 and 715 kilograms in 2025, but the 2026 season represents the first full-scale resumption since the disaster. For Fukushima’s farmers, restoring access to Taiwan therefore represents more than simply adding another export destination – it marks the return of a market that played a major role in the prefecture’s fruit industry before 2011.
Fukushima remains one of Japan’s leading peach-producing regions, and the fruit is among the prefecture’s best-known agricultural products. In the years following the nuclear accident, local farmers faced the difficult task of rebuilding both exports and consumer confidence. Fukushima’s total peach exports had already reached 30.6 tons in 2016, surpassing the 23.9 tons exported in 2010, largely thanks to growing demand from markets such as Thailand and Malaysia. The full return to Taiwan 15 years after the disaster is therefore another symbolic milestone in the long recovery of Fukushima’s agricultural sector and its efforts to restore international trade links lost after March 2011.
