The value of Taiwan's rice exports increased 100 times last year to US$40 million, due to a looming global food shortage and handsome business opportunities that arose from the country's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2002, a rice trader said Wednesday. Chou Shuo-liang, whose company is Taiwan's largest rice exporter, made the comments after a citation of the top 10 export companies by the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture (COA). According to Chou, Taiwan's rice exports soared in 2008 because of a sharp decrease in rice production the previous year by major producers like China, the United States and Australia as a result of climate change. The shrinkage also helped bridge the price gap between more expensive Taiwan- grown rice and cheaper foreign products in the international market, allowing Taiwan to seize more business opportunities through the WTO quota allocated to the country, he explained. For instance, Chou said, his company alone exported some 23,000 metric tons of rice in 2008, accounting for 70 percent of the country's total. Most of his company's rice was shipped in large packages to Papau New Guinea in the South Pacific last year, he said, adding that the company expects to ship small packets to the European Union next year. 