The author has carried out a study on the fruit and vegetable supply systems of Asian countries. In this paper he investigated the supply system of Taiwan and contrasted it with those of Japan and Korea. Taiwan is a densely populated newly-industrialized economy with 23 million people and mountainous terrain. Results obtained from the study data are as follows. A polarization phenomenon can be seen in relation to the production of fruit and vegetables in the country, with a tendency for poor distribution by producers of many items and a tendency for a few large producers to have a large domestic market share. In terms of distribution, there is a significant number of transactions in the wholesale markets in the northern region, which is the most populated area of the country, and these play a important role in the system supplying the consumer market. In the case of markets in producing regions, there are some fruit wholesale markets in the south and some vegetable markets in the central region. Taiwan's fruit and vegetable exports are smaller than its imports. Notable imported items are those that do not rot easily, such as onions amongst vegetables and temperate items such as peaches and apples amongst fruits. These points are common with Korea and Japan. In particular, there remains much room for discussion in relation to countries with a low overall food self-sufficiency ratio retaining a relatively high ratio of fruit and vegetable self-sufficiency with a polarized production pattern. One difference with Korea is that it has a certain share in the Japanese market due to the advantage of geographical proximity, whereas Taiwan has only a limited effect on the Japanese market Considering the position of Taiwan in East Asian fruit and vegetable supply in the future, the key issue is Taiwan's strategy of launching its tropical products into the Japanese market.
