The annual Taiwan Culinary Exhibition is to start next week, and is aiming to cement the health of the nation’s local food culture, which has proved itself to be better able to weather a downturn in cross-strait ties than the hospitality industry.
The food fair, which runs from Friday next week through July 24, is hoping to attract 200,000 visitors, up from last year’s 150,000, as participants and organizers introduce creativity and innovation to the event, Taiwan Visitors’ Association chairwoman Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) said.
“Apart from popular eateries, popular food vendors from various night markets across Taiwan are to take part in the four-day event to allow visitors to taste local flavors,” Yeh told a news conference.
Photo: CNA
More than 200 restaurants and other organizations have signed up to run more than 800 booths during the show at the Taipei World Trade Center, Exhibition Hall 1, the association said.
Food and beverage sales grew 3 percent year-on-year to NT$188.7 billion (US$6.17 billion) in the first five months of the year, on a par with the whole of last year’s 3.6 percent annual increase and sales of NT$439.4 billion, Ministry of Economic Affairs data showed.
Demand tends to be stronger in the second half of the year on the back of wedding banquets and corporate gatherings.
“Taiwanese food plays an important part in entertaining foreign tourists and boosting domestic consumer spending,” Yeh said.
Major hotels such as the Regent Taipei, Westin Taipei, Landis Taipei Hotel Co and hotelier LDC Hotels & Resorts Group (雲朗觀光集團) are offering food vouchers for their dining facilities at discounted rates to shore up sales.
For the first time, the Ministry of National Defense is to join the show and demonstrate how it prepares meals for military service personnel.
The Hakka Affairs Council, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and other government agencies are also to promote food and tableware with a local flavor.
Hakka Affairs Council Minister Lee Yung-te (李永得) said he expects the promotion of traditional Hakka food to attract more people to Hakka culture.
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
RSS