December 30, 2024

 

State-run corporation to help balance pork prices in Taiwan

 

 

Taiwan Sugar Co (Taisugar), a  state-run corporation, will work closely with the government of Taiwan, contributing toward balancing domestic pork prices and facilitating the export of Taiwanese pork abroad, company chairman Wu Ming-chang said on December 27, adding that the focus would be on the markets of Japan and Singapore.

 

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, Wu said in an interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times.

 

The corporation's 13 facilities would cost Taisugar 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. The first six facilities were completed in October and are conducting trial runs, he noted. The other seven are expected to be completed by June next year.

 

The facilities include solar panel roofs and would also convert biogas into electricity, allowing the facilities to operate on renewable energies and function as carbon sinks.

 

"Taisugar is fully equipped to run hog-raising farms with reduced carbon emissions," Wu said.

 

In addition to helping stabilise domestic pork prices, the corporation is also tasked with furthering the Taiwanese government's ambition to export domestic pork, especially to Singapore and Japan, he added.

 

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 will allow imports of Taiwanese raw pork for the first time in 15 years, the ministry 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.

- Taipei Times