Farmers have been growing and drying persimmons in Taiwan for centuries, with dried persimmon cakes a popular gift during the Lunar New Year period in particular. But typhoons and rising temperatures ...

Taiwanese persimmon farmer Lo Chih-neng stands on a ladder in his sprawling orchard using secateurs to cut the golden-yellow ...

The persimmons are dried in the sun for about a month and shipped from mid-December mainly to the Kanto region, where they are a popular gift during the year-end and New Year holidays.

Persimmons are popular in Taiwan where people travel hours to buy bags and boxes of the sweet dried fruit to take home to their families or give away to friends. But changing weather and an ageing ...