Taiwanese bubble tea franchise Chatime will open its first store in Palau this summer. The deal is another sign of Taiwan’s increasing economic ties with its Pacific ally. The chairman of Taiwan’s top trade lobbying body, TAITRA, was on hand with business leaders from both nations, to see the contract signed and sealed.

A freshly signed contract in hand, La Kaffa chairman Wang Yao-hui celebrates his firm’s imminent arrival in Palau.

And their Palauan partner is quite the VIP: It’s Surangel Whipps Sr., father of Palau’s president, who’s currently visiting Taiwan. La Kaffa will work with the Whipps family business in a partnership first brokered two years ago through TAITRA.

Wang Yao-hui

La Kaffa International chairman around last summer… through the promotion of TAITRA. Mainly it was because of the pandemic, so I think our store will open around August this year.

James C. F. Huang

Chairman of TAITRA Two years ago, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs took a trade friendship delegation to visit Palau, and we at TAITRA also went along to support. In Palau we met the current Palauan President, who was then CEO of the company, and our talks were very fruitful and we had deep discussions about what we could do on both sides.

Taiwan and bubble tea are almost synonymous. Now Chatime, La Kaffa’s bubble tea empire, will bring its world-beloved chewy drink to Taiwan’s Pacific ally.

Surangel Whipps Sr.

Father of the President of Palau, I’m glad that everyone’s here. We’ve been working for this franchise almost two years. Within those two years, we were trying to see if we could finish our new store, because we wanted to put this in the new location, and we wanted something that could compete with Starbucks.

Economics ministry figures show that Taiwanese investment in Palau remains light, due to Palauan legal restrictions. Now established Taiwanese businesses like Palau Royal Resort, Palau Fresh Noodles and Airai Water Paradise and Spa, will welcome a new industry to their ranks.