Some 22 tonnes of fresh vegetables were shipped on Tuesday from the Chinese mainland to Taiwan's Jinmen island to ease a shortage there.

The vegetables, which had been transported from Yunnan, Shandong and Liaoning provinces, were loaded onto a cargo vessel at Dadeng Port in Xiamen in southeastern China. The port is about one and a half hours by sea to Jinmen.

Customs and quarantine agencies in Xiamen opened an emergency "green channel" for the cargo to ensure smooth and quick customs clearance and loading of the cargo.

Trade companies expected the vegetables to be in Jinmen's markets early Wednesday morning. They promised the prices would be lower than those of Taiwan's locally produced vegetables.

Jinmen, which usually gets vegetable supply from other parts of Taiwan, has been suffering shortage of fresh vegetables in the past days because of rising prices, according to traders.

(Xinhua News Agency November 26, 2008)