Taiwan’s first domestically bred coffee bean could potentially help the island’s coffee farmers overcome agricultural and climate challenges. STORY AND PHOTOS BY JORDYN HAIME Life in China was pretty good for Liu Yi-teng. During his six years there, he built a prolific career running a shoe factory. The salary was high: he was able to…
China’s recent ban on pineapple imports from Taiwan provides an occasion for policymakers to rethink the island’s dependence on the Chinese market for agricultural exports. In late February, just as Taiwan’s pineapple season was set to begin, China’s General Administration of Customs announced that it would suspend the import of Taiwanese pineapples beginning March 1….
Taiwan is uniquely placed to benefit from the application of information technology to agriculture, enabling it to help provide food for an expanding global population. After becoming a world leader in semiconductors and other electronic products, Taiwan is now looking to smart agriculture as its next vine to climb. The island aims to supply much…
Themed tours involve visits to farms, production facilities, and teahouses to introduce tea culture as a whole. Teas grown in Taiwan have many fans, both on the island and overseas, but few are more avid than Stephen Carroll. When Carroll, a Briton who has lived in Australia for many years, encountered Taiwanese Oolong in 2012,…
Specialist farmers in Taiwan are concentrating on such niche areas as snails, deer antlers, and “red quinoa.” Text and photos by Steven Crook & Katy Hui-wen Hung The 11 metric tons of meat that Akwey Chen dispatched to his customers in 2018 is just one-tenth the volume produced by the average pig farm in Taiwan…
Current regulations have the effect of discouraging imports. Taiwan last year imported US$27.6 million worth of organic foods and beverages, making it one of the largest markets in that category in the region. Despite what is considered to be strong market potential, however, import growth is expected to slow in the years ahead due to…
Back in the 1950s and 1960s, when Taiwan needed support in the international community to hold onto its seat in the United Nations, one of its most effective means of winning friends abroad was through agriculture. Numerous teams of agricultural technicians were dispatched to developing countries, especially in Africa, to teach farmers techniques for increasing…
By Steven Crook and Katy Hui-Wen Hung “My grandmother cringed at the very mention of sweet potatoes. She was born and raised in Tainan, and when she was growing up, sweet potatoes were all her family could afford to eat. In later life, the thought of eating sweet potato in any form repulsed her. Even…
When AmCham Taipei committees met with government regulators on February 26 in the third quarterly meeting convened by the National Development Council (NDC) to discuss unresolved issues from the Chamber’s Taiwan White Paper, one additional item was included in the agenda. Although the issue arose following publication of the 2017 White Paper, it was considered…
Article 23 of the School Health Act (SHA) prohibits schools from using raw or fresh foods that contain genetically modified (GM) ingredients and primary processed products. However, this provision, which was adopted in 2015 in the amended version of Article 23 of the SHA, prohibits schools from serving GM foods that have been fully accredited…
