The Chinese mainland has given licenses to seven companies to resume sand exports to Taiwan, said a spokesman with the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council on Wednesday.

"For a long time, China's mainland has made efforts to resume natural sand exports to Taiwan," said Yang Yi, a spokesman for the office.

On December 11 last year, the Ministry of Commerce issued a regulation for mainland companies on the standard of license application for natural sand exports to Taiwan and initiated application procedure at the same day."

The list of the seven approved companies has been published on the website of the Ministry of Commerce. Six companies are in the southeastern Fujian Province, and one in the southern province of Guangdong.

In March last year the mainland banned the export of sand because of environmental concerns.

Given that 90 percent of sand in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao comes from the mainland, the three regions were exempt from the ban but trade remained suspended for a time.

The mainland signed an agreement on natural sand trade with Hong Kong and Macao, two special administrative regions of China, under the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) in February last year and the sand trade resumed on March 25 the same year.