Japanese Food Suppliers in Taiwan: Sourcing Guide for Restaurants (2026)

Taiwan is Japan's third largest market for farm, forestry, fishery and food exports, and the supply chain behind its Japanese restaurants is built by Taiwanese companies rather than by branches of the Japanese importers found in North America. One food-service distributor carries the sake, shochu, draft beer and seasonings for about five thousand restaurants, a group of seafood traders around Taipei's two fish markets handles frozen sushi items and air-freighted fish from Japan, a Kikkoman joint venture brews soy sauce in Tainan, and small sake houses bring in the brands the big distributor does not. Three agencies sit behind every delivery: the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) under the Ministry of Health and Welfare registers food businesses, inspects imports and ran the measures on Japanese food until it lifted the last of them on 21 November 2025; the Customs Administration of the Ministry of Finance collects duty, the alcohol tax and the 5 percent business tax at the border; and the National Treasury Administration of the same ministry licenses the companies that may import alcohol. This guide covers the suppliers Japanese restaurants in Taiwan can buy from, the rules behind each category, what Japan actually ships to Taiwan, the items that stay hard to source, and the markets and shops worth knowing for small kitchens.

Washoku Agent works with Japanese restaurants across 26 countries on chef recruitment and operations. The information below is compiled from the suppliers' own websites and official sources, checked on 2026-10-29; confirm current pricing, minimum orders and delivery areas directly with each supplier, and check regulations with the authority named.

Notable Japanese food suppliers and distributors in Taiwan

The suppliers below were selected because Japanese restaurants in Taiwan can buy from them, and each company's website was opened on the date shown. None of the large Japanese importers found in North America or Europe has a Taiwanese branch with a public site, so the trade runs through one Taiwanese food-service distributor that has carried Japanese alcohol and seasonings since 1990, a cluster of seafood traders based next to Taipei's fish markets, a Kikkoman joint venture that brews locally, and small sake importers. Chinese names are given so the companies can be found on Taiwanese map and search services. For a neutral list of outlets that use Japanese ingredients, JETRO's Japanese Food Supporter Store programme listed 149 certified restaurants and shops in Taiwan in September 2026, the fifth highest count of any country.

Hard-to-source items, and practical workarounds

Japanese ingredients in highest demand in Taiwan

The trade figures show what Taiwan buys from Japan. Exports of farm, forestry, fishery and food products to Taiwan reached JPY 181.2 billion in 2025, up 6.4 percent, making Taiwan Japan's third largest market with 11.3 percent of the total, behind the United States and Hong Kong and just ahead of China, and nearly double the JPY 95.2 billion of 2015. Agricultural products were JPY 136.4 billion (75.3 percent), of which processed food was JPY 70.3 billion (38.8 percent of the total), fruit and vegetables JPY 22.8 billion, livestock products JPY 18.1 billion and grains JPY 8.4 billion; forestry products were JPY 4.5 billion (2.5 percent) and fishery products JPY 40.3 billion (22.2 percent), of which JPY 30.6 billion was unprocessed seafood. The ten largest items were alcoholic beverages (JPY 17.4 billion), scallops (JPY 13.3 billion), beef (JPY 13.3 billion), apples (JPY 10.5 billion), sauces and mixed seasonings (JPY 10.2 billion), soft drinks (JPY 5.2 billion), eel (JPY 5.1 billion), confectionery excluding rice crackers (JPY 4.5 billion), tobacco (JPY 3.4 billion) and pet food (JPY 3.0 billion) (MAFF, 2025 export results by country). Apples were the largest item from 2017 to 2022; alcoholic beverages have led since 2023, and scallops moved from third place in 2024 to second in 2025. JETRO's market page, citing MAFF, counts about 7,100 Japanese restaurants in Taiwan as of November 2025 and notes that both conveyor-belt and high-end sushi favour Japanese toppings. The supplier lists point the same way: sake and beer, scallops and chilled fish for the counter, wagyu, and the seasoning base.

Japanese supermarkets and specialty grocers

Small outlets in Taiwan buy from the fish markets, the retail arms of the importers and a few Japanese-focused shops. The places below were verified through their own sites or the pages of the public bodies that run them. The two Taipei fish markets and the Keelung market sell to anyone who arrives early enough, the Mayfull stores and the DON DON DONKI stores sell at consumer prices, and the online sake shop lists a corporate purchasing contact. No independent Japanese grocer in Taichung or Kaohsiung with its own official page could be verified for this guide.

Import rules you need to know

How to choose a Japanese food supplier in Taiwan

• Decide who imports. If a Taiwanese importer brings the product in, the trade registration with the International Trade Administration, the TFDA food business registration and the import inspection sit with them; a restaurant that imports itself takes on all three, and for alcohol the Ministry of Finance licence as well, which only a company can hold. (Regulations Governing Registration of Exporters and Importers; Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation, Articles 8 and 30; Tobacco and Alcohol Administration Act, Article 16, checked October 2026)
• Stop asking suppliers for prefecture certificates, and start asking for the inspection record instead. Since 21 November 2025 no certificate of origin or radiation certificate is needed for any Japanese food, so a supplier who still quotes them is working from old paperwork; what matters now is that the lot passed the TFDA inspection and that shellfish and live fish carry their sanitary certificates. (TFDA announcements of 21 November 2025; JETRO, exporting fishery products to Taiwan, 21 November 2025; JETRO survey December 2025)
• Run two seafood accounts: a wholesaler at the Wanda Road market (wholesale floor 02:00 to 09:00) or at Kanziding in Keelung (01:00 to 07:00) for Taiwanese fish, and an air-freight importer such as Hai Kang Trading or MAS BLOOM for the Japanese fish and scallops that Japan ships to Taiwan in volume. Ask each for its cut-off times. (Taipei Market Administration Office; Keelung Travel (Keelung City Government); MAFF, 2025 export results by country, October 2026)
• Price sake with the full stack: 20 percent duty on the CIF value, alcohol tax of NTD 7 per litre for each degree of alcohol, and 5 percent business tax on the CIF value plus duty. The importer pays the alcohol tax to customs with the duty, and the per-litre tax means a large bottle of low-priced sake carries proportionally more tax than a small bottle of daiginjo. (Tobacco and Alcohol Tax Act, Articles 4, 8 and 12; JETRO, exporting alcoholic beverages to Taiwan, Act amended 24 January 2025; JETRO survey October 2024)
• Ask the brewery who its Taiwan importer is before you ask around. Dassai, for example, publishes its restaurant distributors by country and names 開元食品 for Taiwan; Mercuries Food lists the breweries it represents on its own site. A brewery with no Taiwan distributor on its list is a bottle that nobody has licensed and inspected yet. (Dassai Inc., Distributors for restaurants; Mercuries Food, company introduction, checked October 2026)
• Use the JETRO Supporter Store list as a map. Taiwan had 149 certified restaurants and shops on the September 2026 list, the fifth highest count of any country, so unlike Korea the list is dense enough to show which outlets already buy Japanese ingredients in each city and who supplies them. (JETRO, Japanese Food and Ingredient Supporter Stores, September 2026)

The bigger picture

Taiwan is a large market with a short rulebook and a fragmented supplier list: Japan's food exports to the island rose 6.4 percent in 2025 to JPY 181.2 billion, the last of the post-2011 measures on Japanese food ended on 21 November 2025, and 149 outlets carry the JETRO certification. Yet no Japanese importer has a Taiwanese branch with a public site, so a new restaurant buys alcohol and seasonings from one Taiwanese distributor, fish from traders clustered around two Taipei markets and a Keelung auction, and sake from small houses that each carry a handful of breweries. The constraint is rarely demand or distance. It is knowing which importer holds which brewery, which plant the wagyu came from, that pork and chicken cannot come from Japan at all, and that the fish market opens at two in the morning. That depends on a chef who can specify a Japanese fish by species and season, build the counter on Taiwanese fish from Wanda Road or Kanziding when the air shipment does not land, and write a menu that works within the rules.

Frequently asked questions

Planning a new Japanese menu? A Japanese chef can help from Japan by video: dishes that fit your kitchen, recipes, and local ingredients that can stand in for hard-to-find ones. See how a project works.