Tainan's city government used Taiwan's national day reception in Toronto to pitch its farm goods and tech industry to Canada, a modest but positive step for trade ties.

• Deputy mayor Chao Ching-hui brought pomelos, dried fruit, pineapple cakes and other local specialties to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office's reception.
• Tainan was the only city or county government with its own booth, and it is the first time its team has been invited.
• The pitch went beyond food: Tainan is now a major chip hub, with TSMC's science park plant there for three decades.
• A tech park in northern Tainan is set to start building out robotics industry capacity by the end of this year.
• Taiwan's Toronto office played up the city as the hometown of Nvidia's Jensen Huang and the birthplace of AMD's Lisa Su.

Outlook: Tainan is looking to turn the goodwill into real farm and tech trade deals with Canada.