Rum from Saint Lucia was the big attraction at a tasting event held by the ally’s embassy in Taipei on Thursday, which attracted about 50 representatives from local businesses.
As one of its oldest industries, rum has a long history in the Caribbean nation, Saint Lucia Ambassador Edwin Laurent said.
Saint Lucia has been producing rum for hundreds of years, ever since Europeans settled in the Caribbean and planted sugarcane, Laurent said.
The attendees were mostly from hotels, restaurants and bars, alongside international dignitaries, who sampled rum paired with cocktail-style finger food.
Among the brands to sample was Chairman’s Reserve rums produced by Saint Lucia Distillers Group of Companies.
“Taiwanese generally seem to have good taste when it comes to spirits and we have a high-quality product, and when we let people sample it, we find that they love it,” Laurent said. “It’s a large market for us, it’s 23 million people, so we know if we could establish this sort of business, it would be valuable.”
Exporting Saint Lucian rum to Taiwan is not just about business, it is also about building friendship and relations, he said.
“To build friendship, it is good if you could do business at the same time,” Laurent said.
Even though in the 1950s and 1960s Saint Lucia transitioned from mainly producing sugar to bananas, rum production did not stop as the country began importing molasses from other countries, Saint Lucia Distillers Group chief executive officer Margaret Monplaisir said in a prerecorded video.
It is “a practice which still continues until this day, except that the boat shipments have become much larger over the years,” Monplaisir said.
Andrew Kuo (郭廷彥), brand supervisor at alcoholic drink distributor Importer Co, said he had sold 700 to 800 bottles of rum from Saint Lucia in the past two years.
“Not many people in Taiwan drink rum straight, as they still prefer to mix it in cocktails, but we have seen changes and growth in the past few years,” he said.
Trade between the two countries totaled US$431,558 in the first 11 months of this year, Bureau of Foreign Trade data showed.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
TRADE-OFF: Beijing seeks to trade a bowl of tempura for a Chinese delicacy, an official said, while another said its promises were attempts to interfere in the polls The government must carefully consider the national security implications of building a bridge connecting Kinmen County and Xiamen, China, the Public Construction Commission (PCC) said yesterday. PCC Commissioner Derek Chen (陳金德), who is also a minister without portfolio, made the remarks in a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsu Fu-kuei (徐富癸) asked about China’s proposal of new infrastructure projects to further connect Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties with Xiamen. China unveiled the bridge plan, along with nine other policies for Taiwan, on Sunday, the last day of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) visit
RSS