Penghu County officials last week launched a program to educate fishing boat captains on how to improve sanitation and hygiene on their boats in a bid to meet EU regulations and improve the competitiveness of the nation's fish exports.
A total of 114 fishing captains participated in a four-hour class conducted by officials from the Council of Agriculture's Fisheries Agency, said Chao Jung-li (趙榮利), an official at the Penghu County Agriculture and Fisheries Bureau.
Chao said that the council requires skippers who export fishery products to the EU and who apply for a sanitary assessment certificate should first receive at least four hours of training provided by the Fisheries Agency.
The curriculum includes EU import regulations on sanitary measures for fishery products, sanitary assessment items and standards and practices for hygienic management of fishery products, Chao said.
The regulations came into force on Jan. 1 and require that fishing vessel captains complete the course and receive a certificate before the boats can be certified for fishery export to the EU, Chao said.
The bureau launched the program to help captains obtain the certificate and pave the way for exports of fishery products, he said.
Penghu's fishery exports to the EU totaled 617 tonnes last year. The products were mainly flying fish roe and squid rolls, which are usually harvested in summer.
Chao said the bureau held the courses in winter, ahead of exports in the peak season.
As most EU members are developed countries, customers tend to pay more attention to product quality, prompting the EU to implement stricter sanitary measures for imports, Chao said.
EU officials will visit Taiwan in April or May to conduct field inspections, he said.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS