May 17, 2010

• Taiwan BiZniZ trip!

  It’s been a minute since my last update; well I’ve been busy preparing for a sudden audit for my Taiwan factory from one of our clients from Malaysia. Since I was the only one capable of speaking minimal English, I flew back to Taiwan for the audit.

  A little insider information on the honey market (if uh, anyone is interested), most of the honey sold today at the Southeast Asian market are very likely to be of China origin. The general public have a fundamental belief that Chinese food products are inferior. While it is true that the Chinese food industry is notourious for adulterations and contaminations, with enough researches and closer examinations, it isn’t very difficult to find quality food products with surprisingly low prices.

  Well I’m not here to sell Chinese Honey, in fact Chinese honey is kind of driving a lot of folks like my company out of business. And the fact that most Chinese honey are indeed contaminated with antibiotics, the US and European Union two of the world’s largest honey consumers, are fed up with contaminated honey, therefore prohibiting all Chinese honey to be imported.

  It isn’t too difficult for the Chinese honey producers/exporters to remedy the situations by simply exporting Chinese honey to nearby countries: Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Australia, Thailand, Vietnam…etc. and repack the honey, then export the repacked honey out as a different country of origin, which is an illegal practice that a lot of exporters are willing to risk because of the huge volumes and potential tax deductions.

  So, bigger importers today have learned their lessons to avoid being cheated intobuying transhipped Chinese honey – hence the audit to our Taiwan factory.

  ~ Commercial Break, a little background about my company ~

  Yi Wang group of companies is a family based, 75+ year old honey and honeybee product producer, we specialize in the manufacturing, processing, and pacakging of honeybee products, particularly in Honey, Royal Jelly, Bee Pollen, and Propolis.
  
  All of our products are of Taiwan origin with the exception of Propolis which is produced and processed in our Joint Venture factory in Minas Geras, Brazil.
  
  —–

  So, this short, 3 day audit oddessy consisted of checking out our factory locaiton and facilities, apiaries, as well as some educational materials in the Taiwanese honey industry and what not. I haven’t had a chance to really host such a trip and the ancient wisdom of Chinese old saying says it well “The plan never catches on to changes”!!!

  A couple of things that I wasn’t too prepared with (and thus need to be more aware of the next time around):

  1. Expensive hotels and shitty customer services:

  I realized that in Taoyuan there were absolutely zero higher end hotels, at US$100 per night, all we could have were some very lame 3-Star rooms! Worst yet, the rooms come with only one key, and the key is actually literally…a key! With a big ol’ plastic keychain! Maybe it’s me but doesn’t that seem so 90′s?

  The next best hotel was a 4 Star which would cost upwards to US$180 a night, and I’m not talking about Sheraton or the Orientals, just an average looking hotel! But upon further review – WHO COMES TO TAOYUAN FOR TRAVEL? It’s an industrial area with minimal attractions, with that in mind, I can sort of understand the lame hotels.

  So lesson learned: it really was all we could do!

  2. Taiwan isn’t really a cuntry of great eats when it comes to Islamic tourists

  Most of the auditers were of Islamic religion and requires foods to be HALAL certified (which means that the food is prepared and served in accordance to the Islamic law), it was quite a hassle for us to find suitable restaurants, and unlike most Taiwanese people perceived – HALAL foods aren’t just foods with no pork and alcohol – it’s more than that! HALAL Chicken and Cows must go through a degree of “enlightenment” by prayers (not sure exactly) before slaughtered in order to be HALAL certified.

  Needless to say, we did NOT know that!! Now that even beef and chicken aren’t HALAL, you leave out most of the protein intakes, no chicken, no pork, and no beef. So you can picture lots of dishes sitting there with just me and my fellow local Taiwanese co-workers savoring while our highly honored guests waiting for Seafoods and Veggies!

  So lesson learned, next time, bring Muslim guests to Seafood buffets OR Vegetarian restaurants!!

  3. The Taiwan traffic meets Monsoon.

  Some of us are aware of the nasty Taiwan traffic, but it just so happens that May is the monsoon season! So the traiffc got even worse – point A to B of anywhere in Taiwan became potential risk factors to blood clots and strokes caused by poor blood circulations with excessive sitting.

  —-

  Well there should be more but is all I could think of for now, onto some snaps!

  
  Mr. Tsai – one of our partners showing the honeybees

  
  A smaller-sized honey extractor used to demonstrate the concept behind extracting honey – it’s all about gravity baby.

  
  Honeycombs and some honey dripping, a whole lot of sweet in this joint.

  
  Impatien flower, or else known as “Crazy Woman” by local Taiwanese because of the unique, spiked seedings that sticks onto practically anything – we used to throw the seeds on people to annoy the hell out of people, but yeah, they blossom all year long and is of the major honey source of Taiwan.

  
  A happy group picture at the Apiary.

  

  A little on-the-spot teaching about the bee society by the boss himself.

  
  Man do we love traffics. Stuck with this view for about 30,000 years.

  
  Yeah.

  
  A happy group picture at the factory!

  
  Insultingly small beers, it’s not funny at all, knock it off!

  
  And the sun sets, good night everyone!

  There you go! Another busy-bee happy chapter of Jacky Cheng’s life!

  Till next time!
  

  • 5:32 am
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