Government statistics show that farming operators' investments in China have topped US$2 billion, and the figure will continue to rise.
Analysts say that in the past two years, the development of Taiwan's farming and livestock sectors has been hobbled by foot-and-mouth disease and Taiwan's pending entry into the WTO.
Coupled with incentives provided by China, they say that many local farming and livestock operators have moved or are considering moving to China.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs listed Taiwan's investment in the farming and livestock sectors in China at US$2 billion, but former Council of Agriculture Chairman Lin Hsiang-neng (
Lin said that the areas of investment by Taiwan operators have expanded from agriculture to fishing, reprocessing of agricultural products and feed production.
On a recent visit to China, council officials found that some Taiwanese investors had established a good reputation in China.
For instance, the Tacheng Great Wall Co, which made its first investment in northeast China in 1990, has coordinated its seven firms in the provinces there into the Tacheng Northeast Asia Co.
The company now employs 10,000 workers, and by 2005 it will have seven chicken processing factories capable of providing 200 million chickens annually.
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