The Chinese mainland destroyed more than 40 tons of pesticide-contaminated Taiwan oranges, Yang Yi, spokesman of the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, told reporters Wednesday.

The oranges, among a total of 1,230 tons shipped from Taiwan in December and January, were found to have the poisonous pesticide acephatemet (methamidophos) on their skins, Yang said.

He said mainland buyers and Taiwan sellers reached an agreement earlier this month and had all the tainted fruit destroyed. None of the oranges made it into the market, and the cost of the destroyed fruit wasn't given.

Yang didn't say how the contamination was discovered in this case, but mainland quarantine officials usually test samples of imported food.

Fujian Chaoda Modern Agricultural Group in eastern Fujian Province signed a contract with a Taiwan agricultural distributor last month to buy 1,200 tons of oranges, said Yang.

The contract was fulfilled by Jan. 19, with 1,230 tons of oranges, or slightly more than originally specified, arriving in China.

Yang said the purchase was among the efforts being made to help Taiwan fruit farmers, whose sales have fallen amid poor economic conditions. Although there's no specific data on fruit sales in Taiwan, retail sales on the island fell more than 5 percent year-on-year in the second half of 2008, according to economic officials in Taiwan.

In the first 10 months of 2008, Taiwan sold 3,060 tons of fruit to the mainland valued at US$4.55 million.

(Xinhua News Agency January 21, 2009)