The Ministry of Agriculture is presenting Taiwanese agricultural products for the first time at the Kasama Roman trade fair in Japan, which opened on Saturday and is running through today.
Kasama Roman is an annual crafts and gourmet market held every October at Kasama Art Forest Park in Ibaraki Prefecture.
The ministry said in the past seven years it has been collaborating with local governments to increase Taiwanese products’ share in the Japanese market, including incorporating Taiwan-grown fruits into school lunches in Ibaraki.
Photo coutesy of the Ministry of Agriculture
Deputy Minister of Agriculture Hu Jong-i (胡忠一) attended the fair’s opening ceremony to promote Taiwanese seasonal fruits such as pomelos, bananas and dragon fruits, and pork dishes such as sausages, meat ball soup and pork chops.
Taiwanese fruits exported to Japan are traceable and Japanese consumers can scan QR codes on products to receive information in Japanese, the ministry said.
The World Organization for Animal Health on May 29 announced that Taiwan became the only Asian country free of classical swine fever, African swine fever and foot-and-mouth disease, the ministry said, adding that it saw the fair as an opportunity to facilitate the restoration of Taiwanese raw pork exports to Japan.
Elsewhere, “Hatta rice,” which farmers in Tainan’s Lioujia District (六甲) and the Tainan Agriculture Bureau jointly developed, has hit the shelves at stores of two major Japanese supermarket chains in Yamaguchi Prefecture.
The rice is available in 5kg packages at Aruk and Marukyu stores — owned by Marukyu Co — in the prefecture.
Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) on Saturday thanked Marukyu president Yasuo Tanaka for recognizing the rice’s quality and contributing to its introduction to Japan.
Tanaka has long been supporting Tainan’s produce by purchasing local fruit products made of pineapples, mangoes and pomeloes, Huang said, adding that Tanaka also ordered Marukyu’s supermarkets to set up donation boxes to raise relief funds after Typhoon Danas hit Taiwan in July.
“Hatta rice” has a unique fragrance and a mouthfeel similar to Japanese rice, Huang said, adding that its introduction to the Japanese market could help relieve the tight rice supply in the nation.
The rice is named after Japanese civil engineer Yoichi Hatta, who designed and built the Chianan Irrigation Channel (嘉南大圳) and Wushantou Reservoir (烏山頭水庫) in Tainan, in commemoration of his contribution to Taiwan.
The rice is cultivated in clay-heavy soils in Lioujia and irrigated with water channeled from the Wushantou Reservoir.
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