Every bumper harvest in Taiwan is accompanied, it seems, not by happy farmers but by falling prices and the sight of top officials holding press conferences exhorting the public to eat more fruit.
A glut of oranges has prompted the latest bout of exhortations.
However, Council of Agriculture (COA) officials and experts in the field agree -- the long term solution to fruit overproduction lies not in banana-chomping politicians, but meeting increasingly stringent product safety requirements from other countries and increasing the diversity and quality of Taiwanese produce.
PHOTO: WANG JUNG-HSIANG, TAIPEI TIMES.
"We have to rise to the challenge set by high international standards" said Cheng Cheng-yung (
Cheng said that part of Japan's exactitude is not just the result of health concerns, but to backdoor protectionism for that nation's farmers.
"Of course, they are likely to consider different points of view in formulating policy," Cheng said.
"But greater concern for the safety of produce is a worldwide trend. By growing our crops with less chemical inputs, we will not only make them easier to export, but healthier for domestic consumers," he said.
Cheng, an advocate for reduced use of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers, thinks that produce grown with fewer chemicals are not just more healthy, but more flavorful as well.
"When was the last time you were moved by a Taiwanese orange?" Cheng said.
"Our farmers are over-reliant on fertilizers. This makes the fruit insipid," he said.
As an example of how tougher standards can result in overseas sales, Cheng cites the success story of Yunlin County's burgeoning iceberg lettuce sales to Japan. According to COA numbers, Japanese businesses signed contracts last year for 3,500 tonnes of Taiwanese lettuce, a 4.5 percent increase on the year before, bringing in an estimated NT$40 million (US$1.2 million) for Taiwan.
"Japan used to get its lettuce primarily from the Shangtung region of China but they have increasingly switched to lettuce from Yunlin for their winter supply as they can be assured that it will meet their standards for agrichemical use," Cheng said.
The council is well-aware of the need for stricter standards in order to export farm produce, an official said.
"In 2008, the European Union is going to demand traceability certificates for all imported produce," said Chen Wen-deh (
"Japan is our most important market, but it is also our pickiest customer. In 2005, Japan accounted for 36 percent of our agricultural exports," Cheng said.
Other important markets for Taiwanese produce include Hong Kong, China, the US and Vietnam, in that order, Chen said.
To try to comply with these demands, the COA has introduced its production resume program, which documents a crop's entire growing process, including each application of agrichemicals, Chen said.
In addition, the council spends NT$400 million a year promoting Taiwanese agriculture worldwide.
"It is exceptionally difficult to export rice to Japan," Union Rice general manager Liu Te-long (
"There are now 537 different criteria that have to be met," he said.
Nevertheless, Union Rice is working with Japan's Nakajimasyouten to bring the Japanese rice variety "Dream Beauty" to the Chunghua region.
"The initial production is going to be 600 tonnes," Liu said. "Half will be exported to Japan and the remaining half will be for domestic consumption."
According to Liu, Dream Beauty rice will sell for NT$90 per kilo in Taiwan and Japan, substantially above the NT$30 per kilo for ordinary rice.
Interestingly, although the premium rice will be sold as Dream Beauty in Taiwan -- with an emphasis on its Japanese roots -- it will be marketed as "Taiwanese rice" in Japan.
"The fact that our rice is from Taiwan is a selling point in Japan." Liu said. "The rice-growing conditions in many parts of Taiwan are exceptional, a fact the Japanese recognized during the colonial period, when Taiwan exported a lot of rice to Japan."
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS