Suffice to say here that the agricultural sector, which encompasses crop production, forestry, fishery and animal husbandry, has been known to serve as the foundation of Taiwan's economic growth in the past. Nowadays, apart from agricultural production, the sector is accepted as an integral part of the people's lives and the nation's environment. Under this premise, platforms were established to unfold the new look of Taiwan's agriculture before the eyes of producers and consumers, and to effect an integrated sale pitch of agri-products. Toward this end, various media channels were employed to target different client groups to elevate the agriculture's visibility and to change the traditional attitudes among producers and consumers. Specific objectives of the endeavor are to secure support of new agricultural policy and administration, to promote in-country agriculture and domestic agri-products, to create and expand sale channels, and to create special niches for agricultural production.

I. Innovative Social Marketing

As an integral part of the measures to promote the various facades of the New Agriculture Movement, a social marketing action unit was formed to develop innovative media strategy on packaging, advertising, and merchandising. This unit conducts bi-weekly press conferences to feature outstanding merchandise as an integrated and effective advertising effort. The experts, events, places or products were lively featured in depth on major television stations in prime time slots. A unified branding at the national or regional level with lampbox advertising in airports, rapid transit trains and stations, and billboard advertising in major intersections was taken so as to educate the mass about new agriculture. In the event that hot topics arise, the issues were clarified during the press conferences. For the same purpose, newspapers, journals, broadcasts and Internet were also employed. All the advertising campaigns were arranged in a mode to match the specific agri-products, target groups, times and media. The overall goal is to encourage the consumers to identify with in-country production and to stimulate their interests in purchasing the domestic products.

II. Marketing of the Expert

The 10 outstanding farmers with excellent achievements were selected from the fields of crop production, forestry, fishery, and livestock. They were awarded with the Shen-nong trophy and cash of NT$200,000 each. Various other types of awards were also offered during 2006 to encourage those achievers and experts who are engaged in various facades of the agricultural sector. They include: the 10 outstanding production and marketing groups that were selected from more than 6,000 groups; the nine outstanding agricultural experts; the 11 categories of agricultural finance laurels that went to 106 individuals and units; the 10 outstanding fishermen and spouses; and 15 persons with meritorious achievements in forestry and nature conservation.

III. Marketing of the Place

The experts were invited to help selecting high - quality agro- and eco-tourism packages, and designing recreational agriculture activities. As an integral part of the effort, Taiwan has participated in various international travel exhibitions and tourism contests. Furthermore, the owners of recreational farm industry were encouraged to integrate operations with the local tourism resources, so as to improve the quality of their recreational farm products and to create the agro-tourism fad. Through a rigorous selection procedure, the 10 outstanding farming and fishing villages were chosen based on their contributions to prolific production, quality life, nature attraction, and branding of the Taiwan image. The selection was open to the public for the Internet voting and the contribution of photos. Modeling of the scenic spots of these 10 outstanding villages was integrated with the marketing of quality goods from the farmers’ and fishermen’s associations. Through Tourism Bureau’s efforts, Taiwan's recreational farming industry has recently burst forth upon the international stage, and the agro-tourism products from the 10 outstanding villages are widely acclaimed and are attracting the attention of many international travelers.

IV. Marketing of the Material

Nation-wide quality tea and quality rice competitions were conducted in 2006. Sales competitions of those prized products were also carried out. In addition, various sales promotions and extensions of traditional tea and rice cultures have received high praise from both producers and consumers, and enabled the producers to obtain higher incomes. Similar sales pitches were also done for bluefin tuna, milkfish, mackerel, marlin, squids, saury or sanma, and ocean sunfish. At the end of the year, the 2007 exposition on quality products of the farmers’ and fishermen’s associations was held at the National Taiwan University Sports Center. The four-day event has attracted more than 300 entrepreneurs and 50,000 general visitors, and generated a record-breaking selling value of more than NT$20 million. The exposition did give the visitors great impressions on high - quality products from the farmers’ and fishermen’s associations.