TAITRA to help local firms develop global brand sales

Taipei, March 4, 2004 (CENS)--The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), formerly CETRA, recently claimed that it would work harder to help local firms develop international brand sales and deploy overseas sales networks this year.

TAITRA Chairman Hsu Chih-jen said that relevant jobs are expected to be completed one after another this year and will be significantly rewarded in the coming few years.

Hsu said that his council has planned to deploy sales networks for Taiwan's agricultural products in Tokyo and Osaka of Japan, Hong Kong, as well as Shanghai and Beijing of mainland China etc.

Among those scheduled sales networks, a sales point in Osaka for Taiwan-made agricultural products, and another one at a Hong Kong department store have been inaugurated recently. A similar point in Tokyo's Jusco supermarket is also scheduled to be opened next month, TAITRA said.

According to Hsu, his council also plans to help local farmers grow high value-added vegetables and rice for exports to overseas markets. TAITRA has contracted several farms in southern Taiwan's Tainan County to grow organic vegetables and fruits such as carrots, onions and dioscorea for exports to Japan.

Hsu also added that TAITRA is actively urging foreign companies to procure more Taiwan's agricultural products. For example, the chairman said, Japan McDonalds recently came to Taiwan and ordered over 900 tons of vegetables and Jusco, a Japan-based supermarket chain, also plans to procure some fruits from Taiwan in June this year.

Hsu made the remarks at an international marketing seminar in Taichung with representatives of over 200 local firms. At the seminar, Johnson Health Tech Co. Chairman Lo Kun-chuan said that his company's strategy in internationalization is to integrate global resources and practice the division-of-labor system by designing and manufacturing in the U.S. and Taiwan, respectively.

An official of Yoke Industrial Corp., a leading maker of lifting chains and hooks, said that his company has gone through the stages of trading, virtual-plant manufacturing and now enters a stage of R&D and manufacturing-capability rooting. The company expects to become a global leader in the line by 2010.