Quality assured
Some people may wonder, is this "Taiwan Golden Chicken" a new breed? And what makes it different from frozen, imported chicken and freshly slaughtered chicken from wet markets?
The brand name "Taiwan Golden Chicken" doesn't actually refer to a specific breed, but rather a range of chicken products slaughtered by members of the Taiwan Poultry Processing Association (TPAA), and then CAS certified. The brand accounts for 90% of the battery-farmed chicken in Taiwan and 10% of the free-range chicken.
Backed by the Council of Agriculture (COA), the TPAA and retailers issued a joint statement, outlining their commitment to keeping the chicken "tasty, safe, and chemical free." This has led to Taiwan Golden Chicken becoming synonymous with Taiwan's best chicken.
Despite the looming threat of bird flu, in the year the brand has been promoted sales have grown over 30%, and the fact that counterfeits have already appeared is proof that Taiwan Golden Chicken is becoming a major player.
In Taiwan, people who don't eat red meat are fairly common, but people who don't eat chicken are as rare as hen's teeth. This is because chicken is virtually omnipresent--whole chickens are used in religious festivals; pieces are used in traditional medicines; roast, fried, and salted chicken are common snacks from street vendors; and the average dinner table frequently plays host to chicken, including sesame oil chicken, chicken with pineapple and bitter melon, three-cup chicken, and chopped cold chicken.
According to COA estimates, domestic sales of battery-farmed and free-range chicken stand at 350 million units annually, or just over 30 kilograms of chicken per person a year.
With chicken already a staple of the national diet, why do we need a new brand? The answer, in short, is to more clearly differentiate local and imported chicken.
Since Taiwan joined the WTO in 2002, the agricultural produce market has opened up to imports, and with no quotas in place, domestic produce has been under attack--particularly chicken.
According to Hwang Ing-haur, director of the COA's Animal Industry Department, American and European poultry exports are small and unlikely to affect most foreign markets. At the same time, Taiwanese consumers are used to buying fresh-killed pork, so the relatively tougher, stronger-smelling imported pork is no threat, and only 6% of Taiwan's beef consumption has been locally produced with the rest imported, so there's unlikely to be much change there. The exception to all this is chicken, in particular electrically slaughtered chicken, which accounts for 90% of the pre-packed chicken market (free-range chicken tends to be killed on-site at traditional wet markets).
Prior to WTO accession, Taiwan had placed a series of controls on chicken imports. Not only were there annual volume quotas, there was also a 40% duty rate, aiming to control quantity through high tariffs. Chicken legs and wings, which are in surplus internationally and thus sold cheaply in global markets, were entirely prohibited from importation because, like pig offal and pork bellies, there would be too much of a price difference between them and their local competition.
With the door open to imports, the chicken market has become a battleground, with domestic chicken producers hoping to continue to dominate the market through ensuring high quality product.