The 2022 DFNet workshop on e-commerce highlighted the innovations, opportunities and challenges brought by the recent advances of agri-food e-commerce in the tropical fruit value chains_Workshop

Day 1 opening remark

The 2022 DFNet workshop “Enhancing International Cooperation on Tropical Fruit Value Chains for Global Market: e-Commerce” was successfully conducted on May 5 and 6, 2022. This workshop was jointly organized by FFTC and Taiwan Agriculture Research Institute (TARI) - Fengshan Tropical Horticultural Experiment Branch, in partnership with the Commerce Development Research Institute (CDRI) and DFNet members.

On Day One of the International Forum, 5 speakers from 4 countries (Belgium, Japan, Korea, Taiwan) were invited to present an overview of agri-food e-commerce and its development and challenges from country and business perspectives. Day Two, which was the Farmers’ Workshop, had three invited lecturers and 5 farmers’ representatives from Taiwan who exchanged their experiences in developing, operating, and participating in and training on agri-food e-commerce. The farmers’ panel discussion highlighted the difficulty of farmers’ time investment in business, the necessity of adapting their package and sale channels according to the fast changes of the environment and fast-evolving consumers’ shopping behavior.

Day 1 group photo

This workshop highlighted and presented the innovations, opportunities and challenges brought by the recent advances of agri-food e-commerce in the tropical fruit value chain mainly in Asia, as well as the various e-commerce business models in Taiwan. It has been concluded in this workshop that, through continuous development of e-commerce by the private sector, public-private partnership, and even farmers themselves, they can effectively increase agri-food sales performance, which could contribute to improve rural economics in a direct way.

With nearly 300 registrants, the online participants came mainly from Taiwan (23%), Philippines (22%), Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and India. About 24% of those belonged to the private sector.

Day 2 farmer panelists

Day 2 group photo

The 2-day activity was also livestreamed on FFTC’s official Facebook websites (English and Chinese), where simultaneous translation service was provided for the Chinese/English speakers. All the workshop papers and PPT presentations will soon be shared on an open access mode for free on the FFTC official website for dissemination to the general public.

For more information, please visit FFTC workshop pages at https://km.fftc.org.tw/workshop/2

Livestreamed videos in Chinese:

Livestreamed videos in English