Penghu County’s Taipei Affairs Office on Saturday announced plans to hold a “Penghu Week” after one of the outlying island’s local delicacies, ice cream made from cactus fruit, proved surprisingly popular at FamilyMart over the International Workers’ Day long weekend.
Office director Chen Chi-yu (陳其育) said the office sealed a deal with the convenience store chain in August last year to use local cactus plants as a base for ice cream.
The deal was to be an introductory event to pave the way for Penghu agricultural and fishery products — such as Penghu sponge gourds, snow melons, the common ice plant and herbal tea made from Glossocardia bidens — to be better received on Taiwan proper, he said.
Photo courtesy of the Penghu County Government
Penghu County Commissioner Lai Feng-wei (賴峰偉) said that the county’s Agriculture and Fisheries Bureau and local farmers’ associations helped to gather sufficient cactus fruit to make the ice cream.
The ice cream was launched on May 1, and its success was reflected by people sharing photographs and impressions of the product online, Chen said.
The success of the ice cream has helped promote Penghu County and could, with the COVID-19 outbreak seemingly stabilizing in Taiwan, help prime the nation for Penghu’s tourism season, he added.
The office is in the process of talking with Familymart about holding Penghu Week events and selling unique local products at Familymart stores nationwide.
Commenting on the sale of fishery products, Chen said that the office and the bureau would be working through online platforms and focusing on delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Companies and corporate unions have been visiting Penghu to see the fishery products, which underscores the success of the office’s sales pitch, Chen said.
The county is looking to work with National Chung Hsing University and corporations to establish an agriculture zone in Penghu that would offer young people or those willing to devote themselves to agriculture a place to work, he added.
This would provide jobs for locals, provide a use for otherwise unused land and address the limited production of fishery products in the county, Chen said.
Civil society groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, decrying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) efforts to pass three major bills that they said would seriously harm Taiwan’s democracy, and called to oust KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁). It was the second night of the three-day “Bluebird wintertime action” protests in Taipei, with organizers announcing that 8,000 people attended. Organized by Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and a coalition of civil groups, about 6,000 people began a demonstration in front of KMT party headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, organizers said. For the third day, the organizers asked people to assemble
Taipei is participating in Osaka’s Festival of Lights this year, with a 3m-tall bubble tea light installation symbolizing Taiwan’s bubble tea culture. The installation is designed as a bubble tea cup and features illustrations of Taipei’s iconic landmarks, such as Taipei 101, the Red House and North Gate, as well as soup dumplings and the matchmaking deity the Old Man Under the Moon (月下老人), affectionately known as Yue Lao (月老). Taipei and Osaka have collaborated closely on tourism and culture since Taipei first participated in the festival in 2018, the Taipei City Department of Information and Tourism said. In February, Osaka represented
POOR IMPLEMENTATION: Teachers welcomed the suspension, saying that the scheme disrupted school schedules, quality of learning and the milk market A policy to offer free milk to all school-age children nationwide is to be suspended next year due to multiple problems arising from implementation of the policy, the Executive Yuan announced yesterday. The policy was designed to increase the calcium intake of school-age children in Taiwan by drinking milk, as more than 80 percent drink less than 240ml per day. The recommended amount is 480ml. It was also implemented to help Taiwanese dairy farmers counter competition from fresh milk produced in New Zealand, which is to be imported to Taiwan tariff-free next year when the Agreement Between New Zealand and
IDENTITY SHIFT: Asked to choose to identify as either Taiwanese or Chinese, 83.3 percent of respondents chose Taiwanese, while 8.4 percent chose Chinese An overwhelming majority of Taiwanese, 71.5 percent, think that Taiwan should compete in international competitions under the name “Taiwan,” a Taiwan Brain Trust survey published yesterday showed. Referring to Taiwan’s victory last month at the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s Premier12, the survey results showed that 89.1 percent of respondents said that Taiwan’s exceptional performance in sporting competitions furthers national unity. Only 18.8 percent of respondents supported Taiwanese teams’ continued use of the name “Chinese Taipei” in international sporting competitions, the survey showed. Among Taiwan’s leading political parties, the name “Team Taiwan” was supported by 91.1 percent of self-identified Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) supporters,
RSS