Taiwan Sugar Corporation (Taisugar) is actively deepening its industry-academia alliances. Over the past three months alone, the company has signed four collaboration agreements with partners across the public and academic sectors, including National Chiayi University, Ling Tung University, National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism, and the National Central Library. Driven by the belief that "1 + 1 > 2, " Taisugar is expanding the breadth and depth of state-owned enterprise operations, seeking innovative development pathways for the industry while nurturing professional talent in partnership with academia to enhance Taiwan's overall industrial competitiveness.

Taisugar noted that following Taiwan's championship win at the WBSC Premier12 last year, efforts have been made to keep the nation's baseball momentum thriving on the global stage. In February, Taisugar signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with the Chiayi University baseball team-the only top-division varsity team among Taiwan's comprehensive universities. Taisugar pledged nearly NT$1 million to support the team with new equipment, Taisugar clam essence, health supplements, and mineral water. The initiative aims to promote baseball and strengthen Taiwan's international visibility and performance in the sport.

Understanding that talent development is key to corporate advancement, Taisugar Chairman Ming-Chang Wu signed a second LOI last month with Ling Tung University. The two sides will collaborate to cultivate technical professionals, provide student internship opportunities, share industry-academia resources, develop innovative curricula, and launch collaborative innovation projects, striving to achieve seamless integration between education and industry for mutual growth.

Earlier this year, Taisugar also reaped the rewards of successful industry-academia collaboration. Associate Professor Chien-hao Chen of the National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism created two rhum agricole products using Taisugar's sugarcane, and both received the prestigious Grand Gold award-the highest honor-at the Vinalies Internationales Competition, one of the world's oldest and most prestigious international spirits competitions. This achievement solidified the shared vision of Taisugar and NKUHT to innovate and elevate the value of local ingredients while promoting Taiwan's culinary and beverage culture. As a result, both parties signed a memorandum of understanding on the 6th of this month to continue injecting new energy into agricultural advancement and culinary innovation.

"Transforming sugarcane juice into rum can increase its value by 200 times per milliliter, " revealed Taisugar. The company is currently planning to source six metric tons of fresh sugarcane juice from its Huwei Sugar Factory, which will be directly delivered to a distillery in Taichung. There, Associate Professor Chen's expert team will produce rhum agricole at scale for commercial release. In addition, Taisugar will leverage NKUHT's culinary research and development capabilities to create a variety of gourmet dishes that pair with the rum, using Taisugar products as the base-elevating product sophistication and enhancing the overall dining experience.

Beyond its partnerships with academia, Taisugar also signed a cooperation agreement with the National Central Library two weeks ago. Under this collaboration, Taisugar's collection of valuable historical documents will be digitized and presented on the library's "Taiwan Memory" online platform, making them accessible to researchers and the general public, and promoting the study and preservation of Taiwan's sugar industry heritage.

Taisugar added that it is currently in discussions with Kaohsiung Medical University and industry partners to explore further collaborations. Guided by its sustainable development strategy, Taisugar will continue to expand its partnerships across the public, private, academic, and research sectors, sharing resources and fostering mutual benefit to jointly enhance Taiwan's overall industrial competitiveness.


TSC News Contact Person:
Chang Mu-Jung
Public Relations, Department of Secretariat, TSC
Contact Number: 886-6-337-8819 / 886-920-636-951
Email:a63449@taisugar.com.tw