TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan-based I-Mei Foods Co. announced on Wednesday (June 23) it will donate a container of its signature puff snacks to Lithuania, following the Baltic country’s vaccine pledge.
Lithuania's Economy and Innovation Minister Ausrine Armonaite said on Tuesday that the country will donate 20,000 AstraZeneca doses to Taiwan. The move was in response to Taiwan’s gift of 100,000 masks in the early stage of the pandemic outbreak.
In a gesture of goodwill, I-Mei CEO Luis Ko (高志明) decided to gift 1,800 boxes, or 21,600 units of puff snack products, to the European nation. The shipment will include various flavors of the popular dessert treat, including cream, chocolate, and strawberry.
Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, Mantas Adomenas, one of the politicians behind the vaccine pledge proposal, had visited Taiwan and showed a fondness for I-Mei snacks, according to I-Mei. Last year, as a member of the parliament, Adomenas was among a list of 200 Lithuanian intellectuals who expressed their support for Taiwan’s inclusion in the WHO in an open letter to President Gitanas Nauseda.
The Baltic nation's vaccine aid comes after the U.S. and Japan delivered a combined 3.74 million COVID-19 doses to Taiwan to help the country address an acute shortage of jabs. Taiwanese netizens have proposed purchasing goods from Lithuania as a way to reciprocate its act of kindness.
* I-Mei Foods is the parent company of Taiwan News
I-Mei CEO Luis Ko (right) meets Mantas Adomėnas and his daughter. (I-Mei photo)
Puffs produced by I-Mei Foods (I-Mei Foods photo)