In 2018, Taiwan's agricultural exports to Japan reached NT$28 billion, growing 6%; the Council of Agriculture heads to the 2019 Tokyo International Food Exhibition to vie for Tokyo Olympics food ingredient orders
"Foodex Japan 2019" grandly opened yesterday (the 5th) in Chiba, Japan. It is the largest professional food exhibition in Asia, attracting an average of more than 70,000 visitors each year, and ranks alongside Germany's ANUGA and France's SIAL as one of the world's three major food exhibitions. At the opening ceremony of the "Taiwan Agricultural Pavilion," representatives from the Taiwan External Trade Development Council, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Agriculture and Food Agency, and local governments including Yunlin, Taoyuan, Tainan, Pingtung and Kaohsiung were also present to deliver speeches.
Facing what is a must-contest battleground every year for international food sellers and buyers, this year's event is even more like a preliminary battle for suppliers of food ingredients for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Taiwan specially set up a "Tokyo Olympics Zone" to display high-quality Taiwanese agricultural products certified under "Global Good Agricultural Practices," including carrots, iceberg lettuce, pineapples, bananas, mangoes and other fresh fruits, as well as Indian jujubes and frozen sugar apples, which won praise when they first tested the waters of the Japanese market early last year. The hope is to secure a supplier ticket for Taiwan for the Tokyo Olympics, and also to push Taiwan onto the world stage so that more international consumers can taste the deliciousness of Taiwanese agricultural products.
In 2018, Taiwan's total agricultural exports to Japan were US$922,489,000 (about NT$28,135,914,000), a sharp increase of 6% over the previous year, accounting for 16.9% of total export value. The detailed breakdown is as follows:
The Tokyo International Food Exhibition attracts global buyers,and the Council of Agriculture sends a team to show Taiwan's strength
The "Tokyo International Food Exhibition" brings together local Japanese food channel wholesalers, food service providers, manufacturers and retailers, and also attracts sellers and buyers from around the world to make the pilgrimage. It is an important platform for food businesses from various countries to demonstrate their agricultural strength. Council of Agriculture Deputy Minister Chen Tianshou said that unlike the past approach of subsidizing county and city governments and businesses to exhibit, this year the Council of Agriculture specially formed a "Taiwan Agricultural Pavilion" to participate, "like a national team!" to strengthen overall marketing momentum. In addition to introducing the good quality of Taiwanese agricultural products to Japanese and international buyers and expanding export markets for Taiwanese agricultural products, it also hopes to join the list of suppliers of agricultural food ingredients for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Taiwan External Trade Development Council Chairman Huang Chih-fang said that the annual "Tokyo International Food Exhibition" has been held 44 times so far, "Taiwan has never been absent, making it one of the most veteran participants," and that this year's Taiwanese team is unprecedented in scale, with both exhibition area and number of exhibitors at record highs, emphasizing Taiwan's emphasis on the Japanese and international markets.
Representative to Japan Ambassador Hsieh Chang-ting also pointed out that 73% of Japanese people come to know Taiwan through television programs. In the future, there are plans to collect agricultural product introductions and tourism films from Taiwan's counties and cities and try broadcasting them on Japanese television channels, to increase more Japanese consumers' curiosity about Taiwanese products and boost their willingness to buy, and to secure more channels for promoting Taiwanese agricultural products.
Edamame successfully exported; frozen green beans preparing to test the waters
"Foodex Japan 2019" runs from the 5th to the 8th. In addition to displaying Taiwanese agricultural products, our country's businesses will also hold trade negotiation meetings, inviting Japanese buyers and Taiwanese businesses to communicate face to face, so that producers can directly introduce their products to the other side and raise Japan's awareness of Taiwanese agricultural products. In the following days, the Taiwanese delegation will also send teams to visit local channels and attend the 28th Japan-Taiwan Frozen Agricultural Products Trade Conference on the 7th.
Associate Researcher Zhou Guolong of the Kaohsiung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station said that through the successful experience of edamame exports, this year there are also plans to produce frozen green beans (snap beans) for sale to Japan and develop new frozen vegetable export items. "(Although) green beans are currently only in the preparation stage and cannot yet be exported to Japan in large quantities, including field mechanized harvesting technology and orders still need breakthroughs, but we can first go and understand Japanese customers' willingness and ideas."
Japan is our country's second-largest export destination for agricultural products, with sharp growth in 2018
According to statistics from the Council of Agriculture, last year (2018) Taiwan's total food exports were US$5.4 billion, with mainland China as the leading export destination, followed by Japan and the United States. Japan is our country's second-largest export destination for agricultural products, with last year's sales to Japan reaching US$922 million, up 6% from 2017, clearly showing Japan's importance to our market.
Lin Jiarong said that Taiwanese agricultural products are of excellent quality. Although our country mostly consists of smallholder operations with relatively high production costs, "as long as quality is improved, value can be created. Edamame is the best example: although the price is higher, the quality is good and it is delicious, and Japanese consumers like it just the same." He believes that what the Japanese market values is texture and reputation, and Taiwanese agricultural products do not need to compete for the low-price market. "Taking good care of quality is more important." In addition, he also emphasized that fresh products and processed products must both be promoted in parallel in order to pave a broader export path for Taiwanese agricultural products.
Note: In the 2018 chart of the proportion of our country's agricultural exports to Japan, the detailed items under "other agricultural products" are: plant fibers for textiles, microbial products for vector control, soluble or roasted starch, starch for feed, substances for resins, essential oil concentrates, non-alcoholic beverages, mineral water, tablets, capsule-form food products, concentrated protein and textured protein, special nutritional products for patients, sauce products, solid or powdered soup preparations, white koji, red yeast, peanuts prepared or preserved by other methods, beeswax or spermaceti, crude glycerol, palm leaves, palm bark, coconut husk, plant seed flour, kapok, plant down, sugarcane, gum arabic, golden silk grass, and other plant materials for plaiting
2019 Agricultural Political Trade War