Green jujubes grown in Kaohsiung are scheduled to hit supermarket shelves in France today as part of the city’s efforts to introduce the fruit to consumers in Europe, the Kaohsiung City Government Agriculture Bureau said yesterday.
Kaohsiung green jujubes are already sold in Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Palau and Singapore, the bureau said.
The city is the largest green jujube producer in Taiwan, with a growing area of 750 hectares that makes up more than 40 percent of the country’s total for jujubes.
Photo courtesy of Kaohsiung City Government’s Agriculture Bureau
Farms growing the fruit are mainly found in Alian (阿蓮), Dashe (大社), Gangshan (岡山), Tianliao (田寮) and Yanchao (燕巢) districts, the bureau said.
The annual production value of Kaohsiung green jujubes has averaged NT$1 billion (US$35.87 million) in the past few years, the bureau said, adding that it intensified its efforts to boost visibility in the global market after exporting 870,897 tonnes of the fruit last year.
Kaohsiung is selling batches of the Tainung No. 13 green jujube — also known as the “Shirley” (雪麗) — to France through a trader in the Netherlands, the bureau said, describing the Shirley green jujube as having a perfect balance between sweet and sour flavors.
The green jujubes first arrived in the Netherlands by air and were then transported via road to France, it said, adding that the entire delivery process involved advanced cold chain storage so that consumers in France could enjoy fresh green jujubes like those sold in Taiwan.
The bureau worked with the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute under the Council of Agriculture to ensure that the fruit traveled well.
In addition to the Shirley, Kaohsiung has also sold Kaohsiung No. 11 Zhenmi (珍蜜) green jujubes overseas.
The bureau said people in Taiwan can log on to the Best of Kaohsiung e-commerce platform to order green jujubes into next month.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce