Council of Agriculture (COA) Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) yesterday defended the council’s decision to set up an agricultural export platform, rejecting criticism from Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), who said it would be a misuse of resources.
The Executive Yuan on Thursday approved the council’s proposal to establish the platform, named “Team Taiwan,” to promote agricultural exports.
Han yesterday said the council’s move was “wrong-headed.”
Photo: screen grab from Facebook
Han was director of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Kaohsiung chapter from 2017 to last month and general manager of Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corp from 2013 to 2017.
Han said that the council had spent NT$1 billion (US$32.4 million at the current exchange rate) to establish Mitagri Co, but it is questionable whether the company has expanded export channels.
Government officials should not create useless positions to give their own people salaries, he said.
The council did not spend a penny to establish the company, but only provided it with technical counseling, Department of International Affairs Deputy Director-General Lin Chia-jung (林家榮) said, adding that Mitagri’s shareholders are all private firms.
Chen said in a live-streamed video on the council’s Facebook page that Team Taiwan differs from Mitagri, as it aims to bring farmers, farmers’ cooperatives, exporters, and local and central governments together to facilitate marketing, logistics, cooling and quarantine techniques for 30 agricultural products.
Chen said that he is willing to visit local municipalities to explain the policy if Han or other government officials have questions about the platform.
The nation’s agricultural export revenue last year reached a 20-year high of US$5.47 billion, while the council expects to bring it to US$6 billion this year, he said.
While the Chinese market is not yet replaceable by any other single market, the council aims to scatter investment risk by exploring less-charted markets, such as the Middle East, Russia and nations covered by the New Southbound Policy, the department said.
Asked to comment on Han’s criticism, Mitagri chairman Chen Yu-jan (陳郁然) said in a text message to the Taipei Times that he would not make a statement, while asking why it was Han’s place to assess the company’s contributions.
Additional reporting by Wang Jung-hsiang
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