A leading business group from northern China signed a deal with a food company in Greater Tainan yesterday to buy its milkfish and related products.
The Wuhan Zhongbai Group, based in Wuhan, the capital city of China’s Hubei Province, signed a letter of intent with Tainan-based Shinejai Food to buy 200 tonnes of milkfish and milkfish products within two years.
Zhongbai Group general manager Zhang Jinsong (張錦松) said that although China is facing high inflation, there are still Chinese consumers who want to buy more expensive Taiwanese products because they believe goods made in Taiwan are “quality guaranteed.”
Zhang would not provide a -specific estimate of the sales potential of Taiwanese goods, but he said it was certainly “very big.”
The group targeted Tainan milkfish on this trip because of successful sales trials in the company’s supermarkets and malls, Zhang said.
In addition to the milkfish purchase, the group also joined with Uni-President Group to open a representative office in Taiwan -yesterday to facilitate its purchase of local products.
“I’m not familiar with Taiwanese products and need to learn more about them through a local enterprise,” Zhang said.
According to information provided by the Zhongbai Group, the group had sales of NT$90 billion (US$3.04 billion) last year at its 700 retail outlets, mainly supermarkets, malls, department stores and specialized electronics shops.
Wang Wen-tsung (王文宗), chairman of Shinejai Food, said -yesterday that his company has received orders for 830 tonnes of milkfish and related products from Shenzhen, Liaoning Province and Wuhan since last year.
“The orders have made Tainan milkfish more valuable,” he said, estimating that the price for the fish has risen by at least NT$16 per kilogram.
“With the vast market in China, the supply of milkfish has been unable to meet demand,” Wang said.
Though Tainan is considered a stronghold of the Democratic -Progressive Party (DPP), Wang said Tainan’s fishermen were happy that China loves its milkfish products.
For the fishermen, their livelihoods were the top priority and “politics is not for us to play,” Wang said. However, he believed the atmosphere in Tainan had changed since the Chinese purchases began.
He recalled that more than 3,000 people in Hsuehchia Township, where his company is located, came out to welcome a trade delegation from Guangdong Province last year, which he described as a “miracle.”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
RSS