Green jujubes grown in Kaohsiung are scheduled to hit supermarket shelves in France today as part of the city’s efforts to introduce the fruit to consumers in Europe, the Kaohsiung City Government Agriculture Bureau said yesterday.
Kaohsiung green jujubes are already sold in Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Palau and Singapore, the bureau said.
The city is the largest green jujube producer in Taiwan, with a growing area of 750 hectares that makes up more than 40 percent of the country’s total for jujubes.
Photo courtesy of Kaohsiung City Government’s Agriculture Bureau
Farms growing the fruit are mainly found in Alian (阿蓮), Dashe (大社), Gangshan (岡山), Tianliao (田寮) and Yanchao (燕巢) districts, the bureau said.
The annual production value of Kaohsiung green jujubes has averaged NT$1 billion (US$35.87 million) in the past few years, the bureau said, adding that it intensified its efforts to boost visibility in the global market after exporting 870,897 tonnes of the fruit last year.
Kaohsiung is selling batches of the Tainung No. 13 green jujube — also known as the “Shirley” (雪麗) — to France through a trader in the Netherlands, the bureau said, describing the Shirley green jujube as having a perfect balance between sweet and sour flavors.
The green jujubes first arrived in the Netherlands by air and were then transported via road to France, it said, adding that the entire delivery process involved advanced cold chain storage so that consumers in France could enjoy fresh green jujubes like those sold in Taiwan.
The bureau worked with the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute under the Council of Agriculture to ensure that the fruit traveled well.
In addition to the Shirley, Kaohsiung has also sold Kaohsiung No. 11 Zhenmi (珍蜜) green jujubes overseas.
The bureau said people in Taiwan can log on to the Best of Kaohsiung e-commerce platform to order green jujubes into next month.
Semiconductor business between Taiwan and the US is a “win-win” model for both sides given the high level of complementarity, the government said yesterday responding to tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Taiwan is a key link in the global technology supply chain for companies such as Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp. Trump said on Monday he plans to impose tariffs on imported chips, pharmaceuticals and steel in an effort to get the producers to make them in the US. “Taiwan and the US semiconductor and other technology industries
A start-up in Mexico is trying to help get a handle on one coastal city’s plastic waste problem by converting it into gasoline, diesel and other fuels. With less than 10 percent of the world’s plastics being recycled, Petgas’ idea is that rather than letting discarded plastic become waste, it can become productive again as fuel. Petgas developed a machine in the port city of Boca del Rio that uses pyrolysis, a thermodynamic process that heats plastics in the absence of oxygen, breaking it down to produce gasoline, diesel, kerosene, paraffin and coke. Petgas chief technology officer Carlos Parraguirre Diaz said that in
SMALL AND EFFICIENT: The Chinese AI app’s initial success has spurred worries in the US that its tech giants’ massive AI spending needs re-evaluation, a market strategist said Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek’s (深度求索) eponymous AI assistant rocketed to the top of Apple Inc’s iPhone download charts, stirring doubts in Silicon Valley about the strength of the US’ technological dominance. The app’s underlying AI model is widely seen as competitive with OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc’s latest. Its claim that it cost much less to train and develop triggered share moves across Asia’s supply chain. Chinese tech firms linked to DeepSeek, such as Iflytek Co (科大訊飛), surged yesterday, while chipmaking tool makers like Advantest Corp slumped on the potential threat to demand for Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators. US stock
SUBSIDIES: The nominee for commerce secretary indicated the Trump administration wants to put its stamp on the plan, but not unravel it entirely US President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the agency in charge of a US$52 billion semiconductor subsidy program declined to give it unqualified support, raising questions about the disbursement of funds to companies like Intel Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電). “I can’t say that I can honor something I haven’t read,” Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, said of the binding CHIPS and Science Act awards in a confirmation hearing on Wednesday. “To the extent monies have been disbursed, I would commit to rigorously enforcing documents that have been signed by those companies to make sure we get
RSS