TAIWAN FOOD TOUR TO SPEARHEAD MARKET EXPANSION IN MALAYSIA

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 17 (Bernama) -- The Taiwan Food Tour will be an excellent platform for Malaysians to discover the diversity of Taiwanese food, said Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Malaysia Economic Division director James Y. C. Chang.

In a virtual regional press conference held in Taipei today, and simultaneously linked to Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City, Chang said the tour involves Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore and Vietnam.

He said based on export statistics between January and July this year, these four countries were among the top 12 importers of Taiwanese agricultural and food products.

“The total export value to these four countries was US$519.88 million, accounting for 16.5 per cent of the total export value,” he said.

Bureau of Foreign Trade director general Cynthia Kiang and Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) president and chief executive officer Simon Wang, joint promoters of the event, were also present.

The tour is a multinational marketing effort to help expand business opportunities for Taiwan's food producers in the post-lockdown world. Pop-up events will be held in shopping malls and supermarkets such as AEON and Isetan.

 Taiwanese pastries, beverages, dried noodles, dried fruits are among some of the products featured. The promotion begins today and ends in December 2022.

Chang said a total of 1,061 Taiwanese manufacturers have obtained halal certification from the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) for food and cosmetics.

He also said the recent China-Taiwan tensions have not affected efforts to promote Taiwanese products, adding that there are plans to hold 50 sales and promotional activities to benefit about 2,000 manufacturers with business opportunities exceeding US$62 million.

“The Ministry of Economic Affairs will allocate NT$200 million (NT$1=15 sen) to help businesses in the domestic and overseas markets, with focus on 13 countries,” he said.

Besides the four countries on the virtual tour today, the other nine countries are United States, Canada, Japan, Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, France, United Kingdom and Netherlands.

In order to continuously expand its marketing efforts here, Chang said TAITRA will send a delegation to participate in the Malaysia International Halal Showcase (MIHAS) in September and the 8th Selangor International Expo (F&B) in October this year.

-- BERNAMA