When 61-year-old Taitung County resident Chang Cheng-hsiung (張正雄) stepped back from a career in vegetable farming, he did it to raise creatures he previously would have regarded as pests: edible land snails.
With help from the Taitung branch of the World Vision Taiwan charity organization, Chang has since built a business selling products, including canned snails, and pork and snail-based sausage, to domestic and overseas customers.
At a product demonstration hosted by World Vision Taiwan on Wednesday last week, Chang said that he had been looking for a less physically demanding work as he got older and had less energy to tend to his crops.
Photo: CNA
Chang said that he raises 80,000 to 100,000 white jade snails — a much sought-after species used in French and other cuisines — on 0.15 hectares of land.
Lu Wei-an (盧偉岸), a product manager at World Vision Taiwan, said Taitung is an ideal location to farm white jade snails because of its relatively pristine environment.
Snail farming is also attractive for small landowners in the county because of the low financial barriers to entry, Lu said, adding that his organization has helped several other households get started in the business over the past three years.
Chang said that white jade snails “have to be pampered” and can die from even small changes in their environment.
When raised correctly, however, they have a taste and texture far superior to the giant African snails that are more commonly seen in Taiwan, he said.
Lin Yi-ting (林奕廷), a small business owner who has helped Chang with marketing, said that aside from the domestic market, they have also exported Chang’s products to Hong Kong and Macau, and are currently in talks with potential buyers in Vietnam and Japan.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
Foreign travelers entering Taiwan on a short layover via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are receiving NT$600 gift vouchers from yesterday, the Tourism Administration said, adding that it hopes the incentive would boost tourism consumption at the airport. The program, which allows travelers holding non-Taiwan passports who enter the country during a layover of up to 24 hours to claim a voucher, aims to promote attractions at the airport, the agency said in a statement on Friday. To participate, travelers must sign up on the campaign Web site, the agency said. They can then present their passport and boarding pass for their connecting international
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
Taiwan sweltered through its hottest October on record, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, the latest in a string of global temperature records. The main island endured its highest average temperature since 1950, CWA forecaster Liu Pei-teng said. Temperatures the world over have soared in recent years as human-induced climate change contributes to ever more erratic weather patterns. Taiwan’s average temperature was 27.381°C as of Thursday, Liu said. Liu said the average could slip 0.1°C by the end of yesterday, but it would still be higher than the previous record of 27.009°C in 2016. "The temperature only started lowering around Oct. 18 or 19
RSS