Whether it's edible fruits or the fruits of knowledge, people on the Chinese mainland are about to enjoy tangible results of trade talks with Taiwan.

On Monday, tariff-free Taiwanese fruit imports will be available in Shanghai a metropolis in east China at a three-day agricultural exhibition.

And starting from July 29, people in Xiamen in east China's Fujian Province will become the first on the mainland able to choose from a selection of 20,000 books printed in Taiwan.

Nineteen varieties of fruit totalling nine tons will be for sale in Shanghai when the three-day agriculture exhibition and trade fair opens on Monday at the Shanghai Exhibition Center.

Nearly 80 of 235 exhibitors at the fair will be agricultural associations, businesses and intermediaries from the island, said Tang Wei, a division director of the Ministry of Commerce.

Fair officials chose Shanghai because of the huge consumption of produce there 10,000 tons of vegetables and 3,500 tons of fruit per day.

One local official said the municipality could someday be rewarded with a stake in the cross-Straits business.

"Shanghai could be a hub for future Taiwanese produce imports, given its large consumption capability and geographical location," said Yan Shengxiong, vice-director of the Shanghai Municipal Agriculture Commission.

For now, however, the tariff-free fruits will only be available only at the fair, as the Taiwan authorities have not responded to the central government's May promise to allow tariff-free imports.

Before the show, because there are currently no direct links across the Taiwan Straits, the fruit had to be shipped through third ports such as Hong Kong. But yesterday, Mawei Port in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian Province, handled its first sizable Taiwan fruit transfer and sent it on to Shanghai.

Another goal of the fair is to provide a platform to expand cross-Straits agricultural investment and trade, said Yu Yongwei, director of the exhibition organizing committee.

That is something in which Fuzhou also intends to have a stake. It plans to develop into a transfer station and distribution centre to make it easier and quicker for Taiwanese fruit to reach the mainland market.

Kuang Qiao - vice-president of the fruit's mainland distributor, Chaoda Modern Agriculture (Holdings) Limited - said the company plans to spend 200 million yuan (US$25 million) to build the mainland's first logistics centre "to help Taiwanese agricultural products to be distributed on a larger scale."

Currently Mawei, linked to Taiwan's Matsu Island by a ship route, has plans for a 5,000-square-metre distribution centre and a 3,000-square-metre warehouse to handle Taiwanese fruit, according to a Xinhua News Agency report.

In Xiamen, the First Cross-Straits Book Trade Fair, set for July 29-31, is co-sponsored by publishing industries on both sides of the Taiwan Straits.

The fair will break a mainland directive that Taiwanese books can be exhibited on the mainland but not offered for sale, said Bai Jingzhao, director of Fujian Provincial Press and Publication Bureau.

"The fair will become the largest of its kind in the number of Taiwan participants and exhibited books," Bai said.

More than 50,000 books published in the past two years in the island province, along with about 150,000 mainland books, will be exhibited.

According to the organizing committee, the fair will be held annually alternating between the mainland and Taiwan.

(China Daily July 15, 2005)