The Food Taipei Mega Show opened yesterday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, featuring a record-breaking more than 1,700 exhibitors, organizers the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said.
This year’s event, which runs through Saturday, consists of five concurrent exhibitions: Food Taipei (Taipei Food Show), Foodtech Taipei, Bio/Pharmatech Taiwan, Taipei Pack and Taiwan Horeca, which showcases the latest hospitality and restaurant equipment.
It is expected to attract 45,000 visitors, TAITRA said.
Photo courtesy of Kaohsiung Marine Bureau
At the opening ceremony, TAITRA chairman James Huang (黃志芳) said this year’s show reached a new high in scale, with a 2 to 3 percent increase over last year, highlighting its steady growth since the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition, the event has attracted 3,000 international buyers from 93 countries, indicating strong business potential, Huang said.
It is also hosting exhibitors from 33 countries, including Japan, Australia, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea and Singapore, setting a record for international participation, Huang said.
The US Pavilion, composed of more than 80 companies, is the largest national pavilion at the event.
TAITRA also listed participating domestic companies, including Sunright Foods (日正食品), Dachan Great Wall Group (大成長城企業), Chimei Foods (奇美食品), Anyong Freshmart (安永鮮物), Taiwan Sugar (台糖) and Lian Hwa Foods (聯華食品).
A highlight of the exhibition is the “Future Food Zone,” which focuses on plant-based products, emerging ingredients and precision nutrition technologies, showcasing cutting-edge innovation in the food industry, TAITRA said.
Three of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — Guatemala, Belize and Paraguay — are showcasing their signature agricultural and food products, including coffee beans, hot sauces and beef.
The three allies are exhibiting products in the Latin America Pavilion, organized by the government-funded Central America Trade Office (CATO).
Guatemala is presenting its natural and processed agricultural products, including black lemons, frozen avocados, macadamia nuts, white shrimps and coffee beans.
“We have coffee, we have some fruits, we have new products, we have shrimps,” Guatemalan Ambassador Luis Raul Estevez Lopez told reporters.
The envoy, who officially took office in January, said this was the first time he attended the Taipei Food Show.
“Hopefully, step by step, we are going to introduce more and more products as the fairs continue to open,” he said, adding that Guatemalan rum brands are among the products expected to be promoted in future shows.
Taiwan imported US$18 million worth of Guatemalan coffee last year, up 13 percent from 2023, Bank of Guatemala data showed.
Coffee is the country’s second-largest export product to Taiwan, following sugar, the data showed.
Belize was represented by its Marie Sharp’s brand chili sauce and another family-run brand, Hot Mama’s Belize, CATO said in a statement.
Paraguay is highlighting grass-fed beef and natural nuts. Its frozen beef comes from grass-fed grazing cattle.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS