Taiwan reaches for healthier produce

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.

"We have to rise to the challenge set by high international standards" said Cheng Cheng-yung, a professor at the National Taiwan University's horticulture department. "Our exports to Japan have fallen in recent years as they [the Japanese] become more and more exacting about pesticide and herbicide residues."

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. A fruit packer selects premium quality jujubes off a production line in Kaohsiung County's Yenchao Township yesterday. The Council of Agriculture is looking for ways to expand Taiwan's fruit exports.

"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, director-general of the council's Department of International Affairs. "Japan is going to demand the same in 2010."

"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 said.

"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."

Source: taipeitimes.com