The protein system
Taiwan's 23.3 million people eat a diet built on meat, wheat and rice.[1] Poultry supplies 19.0 grams of protein per person a day, pork 15.6, wheat 12.2, soybeans 7.9, rice 7.9, fish and seafood 7.8, milk 4.9, eggs 4.4 and beef 3.5.[1] Meat consumption was 86.8 kilograms a person in 2024, more than twice the 42.4 kilograms of rice.[9, 10] Chicken reached a record 43.1 kilograms.[10]
Farms raise most of the meat and eggs. In 2024 the Ministry of Agriculture put pork at 87.5 per cent home-produced and chicken at 77.8 per cent, and FAO figures put eggs at 96 per cent for 2023.[1, 10] Milk was 33.8 per cent and beef 4 per cent.[1, 10] Seafood output was 138.5 per cent of consumption in 2024, much of it tuna caught by the distant-water fleet and sold abroad.[10]
The feed is imported. Taiwan grew about 115,000 tonnes of maize in against use of 4.6 million tonnes, and crushed 2.1 million tonnes of imported soybeans for meal.[11, 12] Feed mills made 8.35 million tonnes of feed in 2024, half of it for poultry and 41 per cent for pigs.[11] Imported wheat makes the bread and noodles, 99 per cent of it bought abroad.[11]
Durable domestic capacity:
Taiwan produces 29 per cent of the protein it uses, counting feed and food together.[1] Its farms raise 72 per cent of the animal protein, but that figure counts meat from imported maize and soybeans as domestic.[1] Under 5 per cent of the maize and almost none of the soybeans are grown at home.[1, 11]
The ministry measures self-sufficiency in calories. That figure was 30.7 per cent in 2024, up from 30.3 per cent in 2023, the lowest since 2005.[8, 9] Meat self-sufficiency fell from 73.5 per cent in 2022 to 70.8 per cent in 2023 after avian influenza cut poultry output, then recovered to 73.2 per cent in 2024.[8, 10]
Disease keeps testing the herds. Illness in laying flocks and bad weather left Taiwan short of 500,000 to 800,000 eggs a day from late January 2023, and it imported eggs to fill the gap.[32] Its first case of African swine fever, found in October 2025 on a farm in Taichung, brought a movement and slaughter ban, and hog slaughter fell 3.5 per cent in 2025 to 6.99 million.[11] The case was traced to food waste. A ban on feeding food waste to pigs followed, and some of the 435 farms that used it are expected to leave the business.[11]
The base is shrinking. Cropland fell from 851,000 hectares in 2000 to 776,899 in 2024.[2] In 2020 the average farm manager was 64.1 years old, and 48.8 per cent were over 65.[33]
Resource headroom:
Land is scarce. Taiwan has 0.033 hectares of cropland per person, and the area fell by 8.7 per cent between 2000 and 2024, 12.2 per cent per person.[2, 7] Land equipped for irrigation has held near 372,000 hectares, 47.9 per cent of cropland.[2]
Water is the tighter limit. Farms use 72 per cent of Taiwan's water, and supply depends on typhoon rains to refill reservoirs.[14] No typhoon made landfall in 2020, and in 2021 irrigation stopped on 74,000 hectares of first-crop rice, a quarter of the planted area, so cities and factories could keep their supply.[14] Drought cut rice irrigation again in 2023.[8]
Feed takes 57 per cent of cereal supply, almost all of it imported, and 664,000 tonnes of fish a year go to feed.[1] Some land could be turned to food. In 2024, 53,231 hectares lay fallow, and the ministry's wartime plan would switch paddy to sweet potato, soybean and vegetables and expand pond fish farming.[2, 15] That would add food, but it could not replace 4.6 million tonnes of imported maize.[11]
Import exposure:
Imports equal 77 per cent of Taiwan's protein supply, and 70 per cent net of exports.[1] Soybeans are 53 per cent of the imported protein and maize 17 per cent.[1]
Two suppliers dominate. In MY2024/25 the United States supplied 56 per cent of the 4.59 million tonnes of maize Taiwan imported and Brazil 39 per cent.[11] The United States supplied 55 per cent of the 2.77 million tonnes of soybeans and Brazil 42 per cent.[12] Wheat came 81 per cent from the United States and 18 per cent from Australia.[11] Buyers switch between American and Brazilian grain on price. The American share of grain and oilseed imports has swung between 35 and 80 per cent over a decade.[13]
Every tonne arrives by sea. About five maize ships, two and a half soybean ships and one and a half wheat ships discharge each month.[13] Two storage sites at Taichung and Kaohsiung serve all three grains.[12] Cargoes from the American Pacific coast cross open ocean, while those from the Gulf coast rely on the Panama Canal.[13]
Upstream dependence:
The pork, chicken and eggs depend on imported feed. Commercial feed mills made 73 per cent of all feed in 2024, and their share is rising as small farms close.[11] Soybean meal comes from crushing imported beans, 1.66 million tonnes of it a year.[12]
Fertiliser rests on imported raw materials. Taiwan made 63,452 tonnes of nitrogen in 2023 against use of 117,634 tonnes, and the plants rely on imported liquid ammonia.[3, 30] It makes no potash and imported 171,234 tonnes in 2023.[3] More than 97 per cent of Taiwan's energy is imported, and about a third of its LNG comes from Qatar through the Strait of Hormuz.[29]
That link held in 2026. When conflict in the Gulf disrupted shipping in March, the agriculture minister said fertiliser stocks and cargoes on the way covered six to eight months, with potash secured to October and phosphate rock to December.[30] Supplies came from Southeast Asia and Australia as well as the Middle East.[30]
Access and affordability:
In 2025, 3.8 per cent of people, about 900,000, , down from 7.9 per cent in 2017.[5] A healthy diet cost NT$91.29 a person a day.[5] is estimated at 3.6 per cent for 2023 to 2025.[6]
Prices rose for three years running. Food prices rose 5.66 per cent in 2022, 4.03 per cent in 2023 and 3.69 per cent in 2024.[21, 22, 23] Eggs rose 26.39 per cent in 2022 and 10.72 per cent in 2023, then fell 13.59 per cent in 2024.[21, 22, 23] By August 2026 food inflation had eased to 0.79 per cent.[24]
World prices reach the shelf slowly and only in part. In 2022 import prices rose 16.07 per cent in NT dollars while meat prices rose 5.70 per cent.[21] Food prices kept rising in 2023 and 2024 after world prices fell.[22, 23, 25] Live pig prices swung by 18.9 per cent within 2025.[26]
Protein foods are cheap against wages. In 2021 the protein foods in a healthy diet cost NT$29.18 a person a day, about 11 minutes of work at the minimum wage of NT$160 an hour.[5, 27] The minimum wage rose to NT$196 an hour in 2026.[28]
Shock endurance:
Taiwan can pay. Foreign exchange reserves were US$601.9 billion at the end of August 2026, 11 months of goods imports at the 2026 rate.[17, 18] S&P rates Taiwan AA+, Moody's Aa3 and Fitch AA, and government debt was 31 per cent of GDP in 2024.[19, 20, 35] In 2026 the government paid NT$10,000 to each of 23.4 million people, 99 per cent of those eligible.[34]
Stocks are thin where protein depends on them. Feed mills hold one to two months of maize and wheat millers no more than three months of wheat.[11] LNG storage covers about 11 days, against 14 to 20 days in Japan and South Korea.[29] Rice is well stocked, with 1.06 million tonnes in November 2025, 11 months of use, but rice supplies only 8 per cent of protein, so the stocks add little to the protein buffer.[1, 11]
The government has a plan for a blockade. It keeps a monthly inventory of Taiwan's food stocks, plans to ration rice through supply stations and holds more than three months of feed for pond fish.[15] The agriculture minister counts 143 food distribution stations.[16]
In December 2025, China's People's Liberation Army held exercises around Taiwan that it said practised a blockade of the main ports.[31] A blockade would stop feed before it stopped food. Pig and poultry numbers would have to be cut once the maize ran out, and soy foods, fish and rice would carry more of the load. Protein supply of 98.8 grams a day means 41 per cent could be lost before people fell below what they need.[1]
Trajectory
The protein system is consolidating around imported feed. The food-waste ban moves pigs onto commercial feed, and larger farms with better biosecurity are replacing small ones.[11] That should steady output after the swine fever case and the bird flu years, while deepening the reliance on shipped maize and soybeans.[11, 12]
Preparation is growing. The government has set aside NT$800 million to upgrade grain storage, including chilled silos and backup generators, and has placed disaster food in 152 vulnerable townships.[11] It plans to raise LNG storage to 14 days.[29] Taiwan grows little feed and has no spare land to grow more, so its protein depends on ships reaching its ports every week. It can afford almost any price. In a blockade, the risk is supply.