Taipei and Yunlin deepen agricultural and fishery cooperation to jointly create safe and nutritious lunches

(中央社訊息服務20260706 09:40:39)On May 18, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安), accompanied by Legislator Chang Chia-chun (張嘉郡), led a city government delegation to Yunlin to visit agricultural and fishery product production areas and learn about the production processes and quality management mechanisms for agricultural and fishery products. Yunlin County Magistrate Chang Li-shan (張麗善), along with her county government delegation and Speaker Huang Kai (黃凱), received them and exchanged views on issues such as the safety of school lunch ingredients, cooperation in the supply and marketing of agricultural and fishery products, and food and agriculture education, working together to promote high-quality domestic agricultural and fishery products into school dining.

Taipei City officially launched the "Free Nutrition Lunch Policy for Public and Private Elementary and Middle Schools" this year. In order to ensure that students eat healthily and safely, Mayor Chiang Wan-an led a team to visit peanut production areas of Huwei Township Farmers' Association, as well as eel and Taiwan tilapia farms in Kouhu Township. They learned about the production, grading, packaging, and quality management processes of ingredients from the source, and also hoped to further promote Taiwan's high-quality agricultural products through channels such as Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation.

County Magistrate Chang Li-shan stated that Yunlin is a major agricultural and fishery county in Taiwan, accounting for over 70% of the country's peanut planting area and output. Eels and Taiwan tilapia are also important in the domestic aquaculture industries, with quality reaching international export standards. She thanked Taipei City for its practical support for Taiwanese farmers and fishermen and expressed her hope that a stable supply and marketing platform could be established through a "Taipei as a consumption destination, Yunlin as a production destination" cooperation model, achieving a win-win-win situation where farmers can produce with peace of mind, consumers can purchase with peace of mind, and students can consume with peace of mind.

County Magistrate Chang pointed out that the Huwei Township Farmers' Association has long promoted peanut contract farming and a traceability system, with an annual contracted area exceeding 250 hectares. The entire process, from production and processing to sales, is managed in a streamlined manner. The processing plant has also fully passed ISO22000 and HACCP certifications, ensuring the quality and safety of its products, which are highly recognized by the market. Recently launched products such as Black King Kong peanuts, peanut butter, peanut soup, and peanut rice dumplings have been widely popular. Among them, sales of traceable peanut rice dumplings have increased more than threefold compared to the past, demonstrating consumer support for high-quality domestic agricultural products. She emphasized that domestically produced peanuts are highly competitive in terms of quality and flavor. The county government will continue to assist farmers in building brands and expanding distribution channels, and encourage consumers to choose high-quality and safe domestic agricultural and fishery products to jointly safeguard the health and food safety of the people.

Regarding the aquaculture sector, County Magistrate Chang stated that Yunlin's coastal aquaculture industry has actively adopted intelligent and technological management in recent years, establishing a comprehensive monitoring mechanism for everything from pond water quality and feed management to drug testing, demonstrating Yunlin's achievements in balancing production efficiency and food safety in aquaculture.

Mayor Chiang Wan-an stated that as a consumer city, Taipei City hopes to collaborate with Yunlin to ensure that children not only eat their fill but also eat healthily and safely. By visiting production areas, the city aims to deepen the concept of "from farm to table" food and agriculture education, allowing students to understand the hard work of Taiwanese farmers and fishermen and the value of local ingredients.

In addition, the Taipei City Government has signed an MOU with Taipei Fisheries Corporation to work with Yunlin fish farmers to establish a stable supply mechanism, strengthen food safety and drug testing management, and include more high-quality local fish products in Taipei City’s school lunch menu, providing students with more diverse and healthy protein sources.

Today's itinerary begins with a visit to the Huwei Township Farmers' Association Farmers' Direct Sales Station. Guided by the Farmers' Association's General Manager, Tsai Wu-chi, visitors toured the peanut grading and packaging process and sampled Huwei peanut rice dumplings and peanut coffee ice cream. Following this, the group visited the Kouhu Township eel farming ponds to learn about eel production and grading. Finally, the group went to the Kouhu Taiwan Tail Eco-Creative Park to tour the fish-electro-electricity coexistence facilities and the smart command center management system.