Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) led a delegation to Poland's Pomerania region on July 24, courting local buyers and business leaders as the southern Taiwan city looks to establish Central and Eastern Europe as its next major agricultural export market.
Mangoes, Dragon Fruit, and Pineapples Now Cleared for EU Export
Tainan is one of Taiwan's most productive agricultural regions — a status Mayor Huang leaned on heavily during the visit. The city's signature crops, including mangoes, guavas, dragon fruit, jujubes, and pineapples, have earned recognition in international markets, and several of these fruits have recently cleared the certification requirements to enter the European Union.
"Tainan is an important agricultural hub in Taiwan," Huang said, adding that the city government hoped to use the Poland trip as a springboard to gradually expand the footprint of Tainan's produce across Central and Eastern European markets and create more overseas sales opportunities for local farmers.
Poland's role as a major EU member state and a significant logistics and economic center for the wider Central and Eastern European region made it a logical first target on the continent. Huang described the country as holding strong potential for high-quality, health-focused tropical fruit and processed agricultural goods — categories where Tainan producers are already internationally competitive.
Taiwanese Business Networks Offer a Fast Track Into Polish Retail
On the margins of the visit, Mayor Huang held meetings with the president of the Federation of Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce in Europe and the president of the Polish Taiwan Chamber of Commerce. Both sessions focused on distribution strategies, with both sides expressing interest in harnessing the established network of Taiwan-based businesses already operating in Poland to accelerate market entry for Tainan's produce and raise its profile across the region.
The Tainan city government has identified these existing commercial networks as a practical route past the typical entry barriers facing agricultural exporters in an unfamiliar market — shortcutting the need to build retail relationships from scratch.
Tainan Builds on Proven Export Success From Asia to Europe
The Poland push extends an internationalization effort Tainan has been building for several years. The city has steadily developed agricultural export ties with Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Singapore, drawing on a combination of city-level diplomatic visits, appearances at international food trade fairs, and targeted overseas promotional campaigns to court buyers.
Alongside the marketing work, city officials say investment in cold chain infrastructure, quality control standards, and consistent brand development has been equally central to the strategy — the groundwork that helped secure EU export certification and now makes a sustained European market entry viable.
（Related： Penghu by Bus: The Route Where the Sea Divides — and History Waits Underground ｜ Latest ）
