They are plump, fragrant, and bursting with flavor — and until now, tasting a genuine Taiwanese mango meant booking a flight to the island. That is changing in 2025, as Taiwan begins shipping its prized mangoes to Europe for the first time, with France and Britain serving as the initial destinations.
Europe has traditionally sourced its mangoes from countries like India and Pakistan, but David Chen, the CEO of fruit export company Natural House Taiwan, believes Taiwan’s mangoes can compete on taste alone — even at a higher price point. Speaking to Reuters at a fruit packing facility in the central city of Taichung, Chen noted that demand has held strong despite the steep costs involved.
“Exporting mangoes has really become extremely, extremely expensive,” Chen said. “It turned out that even though the price was so high this year, people still bought them.”
While Taiwan is perhaps best known globally for its dominance in advanced semiconductor manufacturing — chips that power everything from smartphones to artificial intelligence — it was actually agriculture that first brought the island international recognition. During the Japanese colonial period, which lasted from 1895 to 1945, Taiwan shipped products including pineapples and bananas to overseas markets.
Mangoes have been cultivated in Taiwan for generations, but it was not until the 1960s that the much sweeter Irwin variety, originally imported from the United States, was introduced. That variety has since become the one most closely associated with Taiwanese mango culture. Last year, Taiwan produced more than 100,000 metric tons of mangoes, though only a small fraction was exported — primarily to Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea.
In the eastern county of Taitung, farmer You Tsang-fu has spent the past 15 years cultivating hybrid Summer Snow mangoes. This year, he sent what he described as a trial shipment of five boxes to Europe — all of which had to meet strict European Union standards, including regulations on pesticide residue levels.
“In terms of fruit selection, and also in terms of field management, the EU is stricter than for the domestic market,” You said.
The push into European markets is also being driven by political pressures closer to home. The Taiwanese government has encouraged farmers to diversify their export destinations amid ongoing friction with China, which considers the democratically governed island part of its own territory. President Lai Ching-te said last month that China had “weaponised” fruit by imposing import bans targeting pineapples, custard apples, wax apples, and mangoes. Chinese authorities have maintained that such bans are based on plant health and safety concerns.
Despite the challenges, You expressed full confidence that European consumers would embrace Taiwan’s mangoes once they had a chance to try them.
“The best mangoes in Taiwan are Snow Mangoes. Snow Mangoes are the Louis Vuitton of the mango world,” You said.
