Rising from what was once a muddy expanse of sugar cane fields here are huge greenhouses and the concrete shells of what will soon be a flower exposition hall, a genetic modification laboratory and more -- the first steps in Taiwan's plan to dominate the world's US$2 billion orchid industry.
If the Taiwan effort is successful, orchids could lose their image as the high-priced but finicky princes of the floral world and become lesser nobility, almost as inexpensive as poinsettias. The favored flower for debutantes' corsages a generation ago, orchids are already starting to appear in rows of US$15 potted specimens at mass merchandisers like Home Depot, and seem poised to become even cheaper.
With their mysteriously complex shapes and colors and their exotic and inaccessible homes in swamps and tropical forests, orchids were the darlings of wealthy collectors in Victorian days. They were hunted across the globe by adventurers who not infrequently gave their lives in pursuit of very rare varieties that even today can sometimes bring thousands of dollars.
Large commercial greenhouses have robbed orchids of some of their elite cachet since then. Now, if Taiwan is successful, there could be orchids for the masses. Seeking a cash crop to replace sugar, which is plagued by falling prices, Taiwan is hoping to double its orchid business, and the government plans to bring heavy public spending into the previously private world of growing orchids.
But Taiwan's ambitious plans to become a flower power have set off legal, economic, environmental and political debates from here to Washington.
A federal court in the US is scheduled to hear arguments this autumn from Hawaiian orchid growers who contend that Taiwan's ambitions threaten their livelihood and the environment.
Nearly a quarter of the world's orchids now spend at least part of their lives in Taiwanese greenhouses.
Taiwan produces mainly a lovely genus of orchids known as phalaenopsis, or moth orchids. The blossoms come in many hues, from gold to lilac to white, and in striped and polka-dot patterns. These are the mainstay of the orchid industry, although oncidiums also sell well. Fancier varieties sold by florists, like cattleyas and vandas, can cost several times as much.
With globalization and outsourcing, orchids have been getting ever cheaper. Many are now started in labs in industrialized countries like the US and Japan and then shipped by air in glass flasks to places like Thailand to grow. They are then shipped back by air in boxes, their roots bare of soil, to be potted and grown in greenhouses close to their final markets for the last six to eight months before they bloom.
This summer, after six years of sometimes bitter review, the US Department of Agriculture approved regulations that would allow potted phalaenopsis to be imported from Taiwan. But orchid growers in Hawaii have asked a federal court for a preliminary injunction to block the imports.
The Hawaiian growers contend that the potting material, a type of moss, could harbor dangerous insects like blood-sucking midges and tiny thrips, which can carry plant diseases.
"What effect would it have on the ecology, and the safety of our plants, with the introduction of pathogens and pests and so forth from Southeast Asia?" asked Walter Mo, the president of the Hawaii Orchid Growers Association. The Hawaiian growers are also upset by what they see as unfair subsidies from Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party government, which favors greater independence from China.
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