In order to increase the quality and image of agricultural products for exports and bring into play quality-brand competitiveness, the Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan endeavors to promote the “Proposal for the Improvement of Product Brand Image and Packaging Design of Agriculture Export Products”, for which purpose it held a result exhibition at the auditorium on the fifth floor of the Council at 10am Dec.22 hosted by Minister Lee Jin-long, presenting to the audience the redesigned quality agricultural product under the Proposal throughout the past three years with brand-new presence and creative designs.

The Council of Agricultural indicates that “brand and packaging” is a great marketing tool to increase the value of products. To both consumers and buyers, good brand image equals to good quality, service and creditability. Also, elegant packaging design is also a key to attract consumer awareness. In specific, agricultural products for export need to be in competition with other countries products on the global market, hence representative brand image and elegant packaging become more important.

In order to establish quality image of agricultural products for exports, the Council of Agricultural began to work with Taiwan External Trade Development Council since 2002 to promote the “Proposal for the Improvement of product brand image and packaging design of agricultural products for export”, selecting export-oriented businesses and professional designers to work for executing the Proposal. Businesses participating in this Proposal not only have to pay for research and design but also need to think outside the box and part with existing brand mark, investing large amount of human capital and time. In addition, because the Proposal only covers the design cost, participating businesses need to bear all other cost. A lot of the participating businesses have experienced certain level of struggle and endeavor during the execution process of this Proposal.

And the results presented are the estimable fruit thereof. Some of the businesses drive profitable sales as a result of the new brand and package. For examples, Lan-Yang Food Company focuses on seafood products export. Upon receipt of approval of the “Hai Yang” mark by the Agricultural Council, Lan-Yang rolls out a series of products with the “Hai Shi Fu” identification mark while improving packaging design, which became real popular on the global market. This success helps the Company create export channels and its export businesses increase by more than 5 times between 2002 and 2004, rectifying that good brand image design has actual help to exports.

The Council of Agricultural further indicates that the items executed under the Proposal include overall business image, from logistics, outlook of manufacturing plan, product design to marketing materials for professional exhibitions overseas, all of which are the overall identification system links of agricultural businesses promoted by this Proposal, hoping to use this Proposal to cast a brick to attract jade, enhancing the overall image of Taiwan’s agricultural businesses. This exhibition also invites Gu Keng fruit and vegetable production cooperative to display the 25-ton truck it uses for logistics and transportation, with sides of each truck using the business image mark designed under the Proposal. The vigorous and fresh design indeed presents a new appearance.

The Council of Agricultural points out that overseas market demand for Taiwan agricultural product and processed food has been increasing annually. In addition to improving the brand and packaging of agricultural products for export, the Council will also endeavor to adjust the overall structure of the agricultural industry, leading the agricultural industry to leap from tradition to use “quality improvement”, “quality certification” and “brand marketing” as the main business expansion axle, making the agricultural industry of Taiwan present a whole new appearance and displaying the aggressiveness and care for farmers of the government for the continuous development of the agricultural industry.