To advance the development of our grains industry and national diplomacy, the Council of Agriculture (COA) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) have both played an important role in helping Taiwan joining the International Association of Cereal Science and Technology (ICC) and sending the first delegate form from the industry, government and academic institutions to attend the ICC annual meeting in Sam Francisco from September 17th to 20th this year.

The Council indicated that the topic of the annual meeting this year is to enhance the products -safety and traceability with a form of World Cereal Summit to gather representatives and specialists from each country to discuss these issues. Grain specialists from China Grain Products Research and Development Institute (CGPRDI), National Taiwan University (NTU), Providence University (PU), and senior officials from Agriculture and Food Agency of COA and MOFA went together to the meeting in the U.S. and a research paper was presented at the meeting by a NTU professor.

The COA stated that ICC is the international organization to develop in a worldwide cooperative way and to promote standard examining measures, of which the head office is located in Austria, Europe. Applying for the membership of the association for 3 years, binally in July, 2005, Taiwan Flour Mills Association was approved by ICC as a Corporate Member in the name of Chinese Taipei. Afterwards, COA invited 14 related local organizations: which include industrial research institutes, universities, enterprises, and so on, to form a body for the purpose of developing strategy to farther participate the ICC affairs.

A further statement was made by COA that there are 49 formal national members and 43 corporate members in ICC enthusiastically participating in the annual meetings and seminars to exchange their research results and experiences. This year, with governmental support and assistance, our corporate member were present in the meeting, and in the future, COA will continue to pursue the program to assist our delegate- on the further participation in rice and grain technical exchange, research as well as international seminars in order to broaden their horizon and to receive the updates information, technology and experience of the world in grain industry. It will be a great contribution to - our farther grain industry development.