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
STRONG INTEREST: Analysts have pointed to optimism in TSMC’s growth prospects in the artificial intelligence era as the cause of the rising number of shareholders The number of people holding shares of chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) hit a new high last week despite a decline in its stock price, the Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corp (TDCC, 台灣集保) said. The number of TSMC shareholders rose to 2.46 million as of Friday, up 75,536 from a week earlier, TDCC data showed. The stock price fell 1.34 percent during the same week to close at NT$1,840 (US$57.55). The decline in TSMC’s share price resulted from volatility in global tech stocks, driven by rising international crude oil prices as the war against Iran continues. Dealers said
PRICE HIKES: The war in the Middle East would not significantly disrupt supply in the short term, but semiconductor companies are facing price surges for materials Taiwan’s semiconductor companies are not facing imminent supply disruptions of essential chemicals or raw materials due to the war in the Middle East, but surges in material costs loom large, industry association SEMI Taiwan said yesterday. The association’s comments came amid growing concerns that supplies of helium and other key raw materials used in semiconductor production could become a choke point after Qatar shut down its liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and helium output earlier this month due to the conflict. Qatar is the second-largest LNG supplier in the world and accounts for about 33 percent of global helium output. Helium is
China is clamping down on fertilizer exports to protect its domestic market, industry sources said, putting an additional strain on global markets that were already grappling with shortages caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran. China is among the largest fertilizer exporters — shipping more than US$13 billion of it last year — and it has a history of controlling exports to keep prices low for farmers. Shipments through the war-blocked Strait of Hormuz account for about one-third of the sea-borne supply. This month, Beijing banned exports of nitrogen-potassium fertilizer blends and certain phosphate varieties, sources said. The ban, which has not
AMAZING ABUNDANCE: Elon Musk has announced plans for a new facility in Texas which would manufacture chips for Tesla and SpaceX to use in robotics and AI Elon Musk said his Terafab project — a grand plan to eventually manufacture his own chips for robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) and space data centers — would be built in Austin and jointly run by Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX). Musk, the chief executive officer of the two companies, said he would start off with an “advanced technology fab” in Austin that would have all of the equipment necessary to make chips of any kind. The project would call for one day supporting 1 terawatt (TW) of computing power per year, the amount Musk expects the companies to
RSS