Efforts by Taiwan’sCouncil of Agriculture (COA) to promote the country’s bananas in Japan have made another breakthrough, according to local news sources.
On 24 July the government body signed an agreement to with representatives of the city of Kasama, to make Taiwanese bananas available in supermarkets in the region and to serve them at school lunch tables, according to a Liberty Times report.
Hu Jong-I, director-general of COA’s agricultural and food agency, said starting in November Taiwan will export 18 tonnes of bananas every year to Kasama and its neighbouring cities Mito and Oarai.
The bananas will be provided to elementary and junior high schools in these cities for students’ lunches. Hu also added he is looking forward to introducing the fruit to consumers from around the world when Kasama hosts the golf tournaments of the 2020 Olympic Games.
Shinji Yamaguchi, mayor of Kamasa, told Liberty Times he would promote the fruit in the city.
This new agreement marks a further expansion of Taiwan’s efforts to supply Japanese schools. It reached its first agreement of this kind in 2016 with some schools in Shizuoka prefecture.
Additionally, in 2018 a memorandum of understanding was reached between Taiwan and Japan’s Toyama and Ishikawa prefectures, to supply schools and supermarkets with bananas from Taiwan.
