TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Pineapple cake brand SunnyHills (微熱山丘) defended itself Friday after there was online anger at its cake boxes showing the label “Product of Taiwan, China.”

The company issued a statement on Facebook saying the sticker had probably been added by its distributor in China to comply with local laws. All SunnyHills products are made in Taiwan and exported all over the world since the launch of the brand in 2009, the Liberty Times reported.

SunnyHills shut down its branch in Shanghai in 2018, allowing a local company to conduct the marketing and distribution of its products in all of China. According to Taiwan’s laws, all export products need to carry the label “Taiwan” before they are exported, but the Chinese distributor might have added a new sticker corresponding to Chinese laws, SunnyHills said.

Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) noted that not only did the boxes have the wrong name, but they also had simplified characters used in China, but not in Taiwan, per CNA. 

Wang said that with the Lunar New Year approaching, he would choose pineapple cakes from another brand, while online there were calls for a boycott of SunnyHills products.