This March, Tainan City Mayor Huang Wei-che led a city government delegation to the International Food & Drink Event (IFE) in the UK to promote agricultural products from Tainan to Europe’s high-end markets. The Tainan golden diamond pineapples, pearl guavas, and ruby guavas flown to the UK left a strong impression on the exhibition guests and global buyers, and also brought comfort to the Taiwanese expat community. After the event, a group-buying community within the Taiwanese business community in the UK decided to place a group order for Tainan’s high-quality guavas.
Mayor Huang Wei-che personally witnessed the first batch of fresh guavas being flown out of Tainan and said he was very pleased to see exhibition exposure of Tainan’s agricultural products converted into actual orders. The Mayor looks forward to more business opportunities generated through international marketing efforts. When Tainan participated in the IFE this March, British consumers were greatly impressed by the rich variety of fruits and agricultural specialties from Tainan, and orders arrived soon after the food exhibition ended. Huang believes that Tainan can expect more orders after the first batch of guavas reaches the UK market, and hopes that Tainan’s pineapples, mangoes, and other agricultural goods can enter the UK and EU markets as well.
Huang also pointed out that several high-quality Tainan produce are already available in Japan’s high-end market. Consumers can place orders in Taiwan and pick up the goods in Japan, and Japanese consumers have responded positively. Tainan is actively making its local produce available worldwide. In addition to expanding the European and Asian markets, Tainan also plans to enter the Oceania market so that residents there can enjoy Tainan’s finest produce.
According to the Agriculture Bureau, Tainan is an important agricultural city in Taiwan, with guava production ranking second in the country. The fruit has a sweet and crisp flavor and is loved by consumers at home and abroad. After its exposure at the IFE, a group-buying community within Taiwanese merchants in the UK collected individual orders through social media and submitted a group order for Tainan’s fresh guavas. This demonstrates the market potential of Tainan’s produce among overseas Taiwanese communities in the UK.
The Agriculture Bureau further explained that in recent years, in addition to cultivating the Japanese and Southeast Asian markets, it has also been developing markets in the EU as well as the United Kingdom. Europe is considered a high-value market, and combined with exchange-rate conditions, it gives Tainan’s high-quality agricultural products an advantage in entering the global premium market while enhancing product brand value and export efficiency. The price of each guava in this UK group-buying order is GBP 6.88 (approx. NTD 295), demonstrating the market’s strong acceptance of Tainan’s high-quality agricultural products.