Belizean producers brought lobster, shrimp, hot sauce, cacao, rum, seaweed, and more to this year’s Food Taipei Mega Shows, using Taiwan’s largest food trade event to promote the Central American country’s distinctive flavors.

Belize Ambassador to Taiwan Katherine Meighan told Rti at the expo on Wednesday, June 24, that the Belize exhibition area represents the country’s food culture and its expanding trade links with Taiwan. The nation of around 400,000 that neighbors Guatemala and Mexico has maintained diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan) since 1989.

“Food is oftentimes a representation of a culture,” Meighan said. “And the more mixed the culture, the more mixed the food. And I truly think that that really is a representation of Belize.”

“If you’re looking for something tropical, something exotic, something that you’ve never tried before from a country that oftentimes speaks to the high quality and natural, organic style of growing and production, I encourage you to check out our Belize booth and come and see all the flavors of Belize here,” she said.

Running Wednesday through Saturday at the Taipei World Trade Center and Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, the Food Taipei Mega Shows 2026 brings together nearly 1,800 exhibitors from 33 countries, organizers said.

To help bring the Belizean flavors to the expo, Meighan worked alongside trade offices including the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), the Taiwan Central America Trade Office (CATO), and the Belize Trade and Investment Development Service (Beltraide).

“CATO has been an incredibly loyal and supportive partner for us, and so has TAITRA,” she said.

The ambassador said Belizean producers also benefit from an Economic Cooperation Agreement between Belize and Taiwan, which came into effect in 2022. After two years, Belize’s exports to Taiwan had grown more than 3.5 times, according to Taiwan’s economic ministry.

“Everything in business centers on pricing,” Meighan explained, adding that the arrangement enables Belizean manufacturers, producers, and growers to get their products into the Taiwan market at preferential prices.

Beltraide Senior Export Business Advisor Omar Castillo told Rti that Belize’s food exports to Taiwan were moving from small shipments to larger volumes.

“While we were originally shipping a couple pallets here and there, I am now proud to say that, for example, our condiments are now being shipped to Taiwan by container loads. So we're seeing the quantities increase,” Castillo said.

Cacao, seafood, and condiments were all seeing “more consistent exportation,” he said, adding that “much success in Taiwan has come from our hot sauces and spicy condiments.”

With a Caribbean Sea coastline that stretches nearly 400 kilometers, seafood is a major ingredient in Belizean cuisine – and a growing part of Taiwan-Belize trade. According to Taiwan’s economic ministry, Belize became Taiwan’s fourth-largest source of lobster imports in 2024, up from 11th place in 2021, before the trade agreement took effect.

Denise O’Brien, general manager of the Belize National Fishermen Producers Cooperative Society, told Rti that her cooperative, which has around 600 members, normally sends whole lobster and lobster tails to Taiwan in 40-foot frozen storage containers that take about 90 days to arrive.

“We are having more demand for the Taiwan market,” O’Brien said. “And this is one of the reasons why we are attending the trade show, because we noticed the Taiwanese is very gravitated to lobster tail from Belize City.”

Riversdale Seamoss founder Isela Martinez told Rti her company was attending the Taipei show for the first time to look for buyers for seaweed, which she said can be used as food, as well as in cosmetics, animal feed, and biostimulants.

Martinez explained that her company’s seaweed is farmed about eight miles off the Belizean coast, away from potentially contaminated river runoff, and near the world’s second-largest barrier reef.

“So that makes our product a little bit different,” she said.