Taiwan Sugar Co (Taisugar) is to work closely with the government, contributing toward balancing domestic pork prices and facilitating the export of Taiwanese pork abroad, company chairman Wu Ming-chang (吳明昌) said yesterday, adding that the focus would be on Japanese and Singaporean markets.
Taisugar has since 2018 instituted a two-phase plan to transition from traditional pasture-raising methods to state-of-the-art hog-raising facilities that would be held to the strictest EU standards, he said in an interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper).
Its 13 facilities would cost the state-run company more than NT$12 million (US$366,748), and are expected to house a maximum of 700,000 hogs, Wu said, adding that its farms would enable it to help the government balance domestic prices of pork.
Photo: Lin Jing-hua, Taipei Times
The inexperience of subcontractors with the technology introduced has resulted in some delays, but the first six facilities were completed in October and are doing trial runs, Wu said.
The other seven are expected to be completed by June next year, he added.
The facilities include solar panel roofs and would also convert biogas into electricity, allowing the facilities to run off of renewable energies and become carbon sinks instead of being carbon emission hotspots.
“Taisugar is fully equipped to run hog-raising farms with reduced carbon emissions,” Wu said.
In addition to helping stabilize domestic pork prices, it is also tasked with furthering the government’s ambition to export Taiwanese pork, especially to Singapore and Japan, he said.
The Ministry of Agriculture said the World Health Organization has certified Taiwan to be free of foot-and-mouth disease.
It was first discovered in the nation in 1997 and is the main reason why Taiwanese pork could not be exported, the ministry said, adding that it is working toward obtaining swine fever-free status, which is expected in May next year.
Singapore is to allow imports of Taiwanese raw pork for the first time in 15 years, it said.
Wu said air-lifting pork to Japan was accepted and that he was confident that Taisugar pork would be the best quality pork in Taiwan.
“There will be no issues in our pork clearing Japanese customs and entering their market,” he said.
Commenting on alleged lean meat essence being discovered in Taisugar meat products before the Lunar New Year this year, Wu said none of the 921 meat products it tested was positive and that the company had suffered from the negative media coverage.
Taisugar is a state-run corporation and has a responsibility to the state and the people to produce safe products, Wu said, adding that Taisugar products would not hit the shelves unless they are certified as secure.
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