Chicken sales have fallen dramatically even though the H7N9 avian influenza virus has not spread in Taiwan, creating an “unexpected misfortune” for chicken farmers, the Poultry Association of the Republic of China said yesterday.
Association official Lee Ching-kun (李清焜) said chicken sales have been hit hard over concerns that there might be an H7N9 outbreak in Taiwan, plunging 40 to 50 percent last month from April last year.
Even though the only H7N9 case in Taiwan was a man who contracted the disease in China, the news brought “unexpected misfortune” to farmers, Lee said at an event the association held to promote chicken products.
Photo: CNA
“Had there been an outbreak, chicken farmers would have been the first ones to be infected,” Lee said.
Consumers could feel confident when buying locally raised chickens and eggs, he said.
Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Bao-ji (陳保基), who was invited to the event, said food processing practices in Taiwan, from feeding and slaughtering to shipping, all conform to international sanitary standards.
He would personally guarantee the safety of locally raised chickens, Chen said.
Although the H7N9 virus is not a threat in Taiwan, the Department of Health has advised consumers to maintain good hygiene practices, including washing one’s hands frequently, keeping raw and cooked meat separate and making sure chicken products and eggs are fully cooked before consuming them.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS