Independent Taipei mayoral candidate Wu E-yang (吳萼洋) was yesterday invited by the Forestry Bureau to help promote honey products at an event in Taipei, where he called for stepped-up efforts to market local agricultural produce.
Wu was defeated by Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) in the election on Saturday last week, in which Wu garnered 5,617 votes, or 0.4 percent of the votes.
However, Wu gained wide popularity during the campaign when he broke into a melancholic song during a televised debate and raised eyebrows when he said he had entered the race to promote “honey lemonade,” in which he said he had developed an interest while working as manager at Chung Kuo Insurance Co’s Hualien City branch.
Taking advantage of the publicity that Wu generated during his campaign, the Forestry Bureau invited Wu to advertise locally produced honey products at the bureau’s store in Taipei’s Huashan 1914 Creative Park, where many visitors yesterday stopped to watch him sing and make honey lemonade.
Wu is the best imaginable mouthpiece for honey and other agricultural products, bureau Director-General Lin Hua-ching (林華慶) said.
“Taiwan’s agricultural products are of better quality than those of most other countries,” Wu said, adding that locally grown lemons are more aromatic than those produced elsewhere.
Taiwanese farmers are hard-working, but the prices for their produce are greatly affected by changes in weather, he said, calling on the government to work harder to promote local produce domestically and among the nation’s diplomatic allies.
When pineapples are over-produced, the government should promote pineapple cakes, rather than buying or destroying pineapples, creating market demand for the fruit, Wu added.
Meanwhile, the bureau’s animal-themed calendar for next year, which was sold at the store, also attracted many buyers over the weekend, with 800 calendars sold on Saturday, the first day of sales.
The calendars can be bought at bookstores that sell government publications, the bureau said.
It added that the bureau calendar for 2020 would have a different theme.
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