The Agriculture and Food Agency of the Council of Agriculture signed a cooperation agreement with Kasama, in the Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, on the 24th of this month. 18 metric tons of Taiwanese bananas will be exported to Japan every year, starting this November, the bananas will be included in children's lunches in primary and secondary schools, and they also will be sold in local supermarkets.
The Council of Agriculture and the city of Kasama have agreed in strengthening the alimentary and cultural cooperation. The Agriculture and Food Agency expressed that in order to celebrate the first anniversary of the establishment of a Taiwanese Office in the city, Yamaguchi Shinshu, the Mayor of the city, led a delegation to Taiwan to sign this agreement, that pretends to strengthen the commerce of agricultural products, personnel exchanges and agricultural publicity.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food, Mr. Hu Zhongyi, said that since November this year, the city of Kasama and their neighbours, Mito and Oarai will import 18 metric tons of Taiwanese bananas that will be included in children's lunches in primary and secondary schools, and will be the largest in the region, as well as sold in the “Daybreak supermarkets 「霞」” , that chain will also implement many marketing activities.
The Agriculture and Food Agency also said that in order to let Japanese consumers recognize Taiwanese bananas, in 2016, Taiwan started supplying bananas as lunch fruits for many schools around the Japan.
Hu Zhongyi mentioned that Kasama will host one of the golf matches of the 2020 Summer Olympics Games, so the international players will be received in. He hopes that this agreement of cooperation will suppose an opportunity to promote Taiwanese players to participate in the Games, letting the representatives of other countries know about Taiwanese agriculture products. This way Japanese will remind the quality of Taiwanese bananas and other fruits, deepening the friendship between Taiwan and Japan.
In addition to the Mayor Yamaguchi Shinshu, other leaders and members of the city’s parliament also came to Taiwan to participate in the signing ceremony. The Liberty Times reported that Mr. Yamaguchi Shinshu said that they decided to import Taiwanese bananas because of their sweet taste, he hopes to promote Kasama, and he also hopes that Taiwan and the Kasama keep expanding their exchanges.
