The nation’s exports of fruits and vegetables have grown significantly this year compared with the same time last year, with Japan being the top destination for Taiwanese produce, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday.
Produce exports for the first five months of this year totaled US$1.92 billion, up 23.19 percent from the same time last year, said Chang Su-san (張淑賢), director-general of the council’s Department of International Affairs.
Chang said agriculture exports totaled US$3.9 billion last year, with Japan as the top destination (23 percent), followed by China (13.2 percent), Hong Kong (11 percent) and the US (10.1 percent).
The top destinations remain roughly the same, with Japan topping the list with 49 percent of exported goods, followed by the US (16 percent), China (7.5 percent) and Hong Kong (7.4 percent).
JAPAN
Chang also said that exports of agricultural products to Japan have grown despite the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and ensuing nuclear crisis.
Fruit and vegetable shipments to Japan for the first five months of this year totaled US$450.4 million, up 15 percent from the same time last year.
For example, exports of carrots totaled 4,797 tonnes, up 133 percent from the same time last year. Cabbage shipments were also up by 57 percent to 2,195 tonnes, Chang said.
CHINA
Meanwhile, exports of produce to China have grown by 44 percent to a total of US$276 million so far this year.
Chang attributed the growth to the inclusion of agricultural products in the “early harvest” list of goods and services under the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) signed between Taiwan and China in June last year.
According to the council’s statistics, exports to China of grouper totaled 3,455.6 tonnes, up 6.7 times from the same time last year. Exports of Pacific saury totaled 1,401.51 tonnes, which was 5.18 times more than last year.
However, exports of oranges, bananas and golden mushrooms dropped during the first five months this year, with exports of oranges down 78 percent compared with the same time last year, the council’s statistics show.
Chang attributed the large drop in orange exports to the absence of an emergency purchase agreement with China this year. Last year’s large fruit harvest resulted in an oversupply in the market, which China then agreed to purchase.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in