The two-day Taiwan-Japan Dagang Fruit Festival opened yesterday at the Kaohsiung Music Center, with nearly 100 stalls promoting agricultural products alongside music and dance performances.
Fruit exports totaled 22,517 tonnes from January to last month, with a value of NT$1.35 billion (US$45.82 million), Agriculture and Food Agency data showed.
Fruits exported to Japan totaled 16,018 tonnes in the period, accounting for 71 percent of the total, showing that Japan is an important market for Taiwan, the agency said.
Photo courtesy of the Kaohsiung City Government
The festival on the music center’s Sea Breeze Plaza and Riverside Promenade was organized by the Kaohsiung City Government and the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association as part of efforts to promote Taiwan’s fruits and processed fruit products, as well as bolster bilateral friendship and cooperation.
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) last month at a meeting with Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association Chief Representative Kazuyuki Katayama said that the event was also held in Kaohsiung last year, drawing about 100,000 visitors over two days.
Katayama at the meeting said that he expected the festival this year to be more popular than last year, adding that he hopes the city government would continue to support Japanese in Kaohsiung in terms of safety, education and investments.
In related news, the Ministry of Agriculture has collaborated with the Ibaraki Prefectural Government in Japan to import Taiwanese fruits to the prefecture to enrich the lunch menus of local elementary and junior-high schools.
The effort is part of a memorandum of understanding that the Agriculture and Food Agency signed with Kasama, a city in Ibaraki, in 2019.
Nearly 3 tonnes of pineapples are expected to be shipped from Taiwan to Ibaraki this year from May, with more than 33,000 students across 92 schools in the prefecture to taste them, the agency said in a statement on Friday.
Last week, about 630kg of Irwin mangoes grown in Taiwan were exported to Ibaraki to supplement lunches of nearly 8,000 students from 21 junior-high schools in the prefecture ahead of their summer vacation, the statement said.
Nearly 40,000 students across 113 schools in Ibaraki have had fresh mangoes or pineapples from Taiwan in their school lunches this year, it said.
That would give young Japanese a good impression of Taiwanese fruits and lay a foundation to expand local consumer markets, it added.
Additional reporting by CNA
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
A British man was arrested for attempting to smuggle 14.37kg of marijuana into Taiwan through Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taipei Customs said late yesterday. The man, who arrived from Bangkok at 9pm on Friday, was asked by customs officers to open his luggage during a random inspection, Taipei Customs said in a news release. The passenger, whose identity was not disclosed, refused to open his suitcase and tried to flee the restricted area. He was eventually subdued by three customs officials and an Aviation Police Bureau officer. A later search of his checked luggage uncovered 14.37kg of marijuana buds. The case was handed over
RSS