The Ministry of Economic Affairs is planning to allocate NT$200 million (US$6.7 million) to help local food producers expand their overseas footprint, including in Asia and North America, to help them mitigate the impact of China’s import bans.
The subsidy program, dubbed “Taiwan Food Go to the World,” would provide guidance to food producers on marketing and finance to help them overcome difficulties due to import bans China imposed on Taiwanese food brands on Monday last week, the ministry said yesterday.
China is the third-largest export destination for local processed food companies, accounting for 20 percent of Taiwan’s overall processed food exports, the ministry said.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
The ministry is in talks with Redmart, Singapore’s biggest online grocery store, and Japanese online retailier Rakuten to sell Taiwanese food products, it said, adding that it hopes the initiative would give producers a boost as early as October.
The Council of Agriculture on Tuesday last week said the blacklisted companies include producers of tea leaves, dried fruits, honey, cocoa beans and vegetables, as well as the catches from about 700 Taiwanese fishing vessels.
China said the suspension was related to the companies’ compliance with a new customs registration system that it introduced in April last year.
However, several Taiwanese companies whose registrations on the system are up to date were also affected by the ban.
The government is promoting the sale of processed Taiwanese food products and agricultural products to other markets to help producers overcome the China trade challenges, Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) told reporters.
The government would help manufacturers market their products mainly in 13 countries, including Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, the US and Vietnam, she said.
Companies that market their products on foreign Web sites would receive a subsidy of NT$100,000 and those that hold promotion activities can apply for a subsidy of NT$200,000 for up to five events each, she added.
The ministry would organize sales promotion events in countries such as Singapore and Malaysia, and participate in food-related activities and exhibitions, she said.
The program would benefit about 2,000 manufacturers, adding an expected US$60 million to their combined revenue, she said.
The ministry hopes the program can help companies diversify their target markets and bring Taiwanese delicacies to more countries, she said.
Additional reporting by Lisa Wang
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
Artificial intelligence (AI) giant Nvidia Corp’s most advanced chips would be reserved for US companies and kept out of China and other countries, US President Donald Trump said. During an interview that aired on Sunday on CBS’ 60 Minutes program and in comments to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said only US customers should have access to the top-end Blackwell chips offered by Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization. “The most advanced, we will not let anybody have them other than the United States,” he told CBS, echoing remarks made earlier to reporters as he returned to Washington
RSS