To prevent African swine fever from spreading in the nation, Taiwan has temporarily banned the act of feeding pigs food waste. On Sep. 5, Premier Su Tseng-Chang made a trip to Tainan and inspected the city's Chengsi High-speed Food Waste Fermentation Factory. He was accompanied by Tainan City Mayor Huang Wei-che.
The Premier commended Tainan City Government for building this high-speed food waste fermentation plant ahead of time in 2019, allowing it to immediately come into service when needed. The factory can transform food waste into organic compost within ten days, boosting food waste processing efficiency and realizing recycling in a circular economy society. Su also pointed out that African swine fever is highly contagious and the mortality rate of infected pigs is high. He asked pig farmers to cooperate with the government during such crucial times and stop feeding pigs food waste for the time being.
Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che remarked that Tainan is the fifth largest pig-raising city/county in Taiwan. By launching these high-speed fermentation factories, the city has more channels to process food waste. Fourteen pig farms (that use kitchen waste as pig feed) under the management of the Environmental Protection Bureau have promised to cooperate and stop feeding their pigs food waste during this period of time. In addition to launching the high-speed food waste fermentation factories, Tainan City Government also rolled out supporting food waste processing measures for food and drink businesses and large-scale food service companies, and continues to operate traditional compost areas to fully safeguard relevant industries.
According to the Environmental Protection Bureau, from the day Tainan City's pig farms completely stopped using food waste to feed pigs up to Sep. 3, approximately 150 tons of food waste were collected each day. The high-speed food waste fermentation factories immediately came into service: every day Chengsi High-speed Food Waste Fermentation Factory processes 30 tons of food waste and Xinhua High-speed Food Waste Fermentation Factory processes 15 tons. The two factories combined can process 45 tons, which is about 30% of the entire city's food waste. This helps cut down the pressure of food waste processing in Tainan City.