How garlic from Egypt and Argentina could participate in elections in Taiwan

Published 2024년 2월 1일

Tridge summary

In 2023, a linguistic coincidence led to Egyptian and Argentinean garlic indirectly participating in Taiwan's presidential elections. The Mandarin phrase for 'frozen garlic' sounds similar to the Hoklo expression 'to be chosen', leading to garlic being used as a symbol of good luck for candidates. As a result, Egypt and Argentina, key garlic exporters to Taiwan, saw their products potentially used in the election process, with Egypt breaking its record by exporting 8.9 thousand tons and Argentina exporting 9.4 thousand tons. However, Mainland China still dominates the global garlic market, producing 90 thousand tons per year, with a market share ranging from 94% to almost 100%.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

In 2023, Egyptian exporters were not only able to update the record for garlic exports to Taiwan, but also possibly indirectly participate in the presidential elections in this country, EastFruit reports. They were accompanied in this by garlic suppliers from Argentina, which, along with Egypt, was one of the two key exporters of these products to the Taiwanese market. First, let's try to explain how garlic from Egypt and Argentina could participate in elections in this island state. Let us recall that the presidential and parliamentary elections in Taiwan (or officially the Republic of China) were held in January of this year, but the election campaign started in the country long before the voting itself. Considering that the population of Taiwan speaks many languages (in particular, Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese Hoklo, etc.), the country has many homophones, i.e. words that sound similar but mean completely different concepts. Thus, as the South China Morning Post explains, the ...

Source: Eastfruit