Taiwan farmers’ interest in China is cooling: reportBy Chung Li-hua and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writerTaiwanese farmers declared only one China-bound agricultural project last year, showing that interest in China’s farming sector has cooled, the Council of Agriculture said in a report. The council compiled the report in response to legislators’ request last year that officials evaluate whether the nation’s agricultural trade secrets are being compromised by Taiwanese farmers working in China. Beijing in 1997 began courting Taiwanese farmers and investors with the establishment of the Cross-Strait Agricultural Cooperation Experimental Zone, it said, adding that other incentives would be enacted in following years. Taiwanese farmers and investors reported 210 investments connected to the making of unprocessed agricultural products in China in 1997, the highest level ever recorded, it said. This growth was driven by the technology sector’s involvement in intensive hog farming in China, it said.
