AFA Director-General Hu Jong-I indicates that to ensure the best performance from athletes, the TOCOG requires all meals served to meet their diverse nutritional and dietary needs. Each ingredient supplied to Olympic Village shall meet the stringent Sustainable Sourcing Code for Agricultural Products. Technically, in addition to certification schemes like GLOBALG.A.P. and JGAP, only those that have been approved by the TOCOG can certify food products for Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Taiwan’s existing TAP system, with its well implemented traceability, safety, and assurance, has strived to provide agricultural products for athletes participating in Tokyo 2020. In February 2018, Council of Agriculture started comparing Taiwan’s TAP system and the standards promulgated by the organizer. A task force led by the AFA comprising staff from the COA, Taiwan Accreditation Foundation, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan Banana Research Institute, and relevant accreditation and certification bodies has been working on drafting the “Banana TGAP 2020 PLUS” for the past two years and successfully won the approval of the TOCOG. The approval was also announced on the official Tokyo 2020 website.
Director-General Hu explains that having Taiwan’s enhanced “Banana TGAP 2020 PLUS” approved by an renowned international body shows that Taiwan’s standards on agricultural safety and quality is comparable with GLOBALG.A.P. and JGAP. That gives our agricultural participants great confidence in marketing to the global market. Director-General Hu emphasizes that on top of safe use of pesticides, batch management, and traceability, “Banana TGAP 2020 PLUS” also incorporated elements like sustainable management, labor welfare, energy conservation, bio-diversity, enhanced monitoring of water and soil risks, farmer insurance, protection of intellectual property, and integrated pest management (IPM), for which numerous new clauses were drawn. By duly taking note of quality assurance, food safety, ecology, workers’ occupational health and safety, and environmental sustainability, the enhanced TGAP will help lift domestic TAP products up to international standards.
Director-General Hu further points out that internationally, agriculture is pursuing certification systems capable of ensuring that agricultural products are traceable, trustworthy, and safe, and those values will continue to guide AFA’s counseling works. In an effort to expand the global presence of Taiwan agriculture, the enhanced TGAP will not be limited to bananas, as major export items like pineapples and dragon fruits are among the targets. Producers of those crops will be offered guidance on adopting certification schemes that correspond to the requirements of domestic and foreign channels, which will hugely boost Taiwan’s agricultural competitiveness.
