A Taiwanese entrepreneur has developed a unique product to capitalize on the nation's desire for cheaper rice wine after WTO accession sent prices of the popular cooking staple up six-fold.
The machine -- a device that takes the salt out of a cheaper form of rice wine -- can apparently transform a NT$48-per-bottle salty rice wine into the equivalent of the NT$130 version.
"It will make salty rice wine pure and drinkable -- and it's cheaper," said the machine's inventor Su Hsin-hsiang (
The government adopted a new tax system on alcohol products on Jan. 1 in line with WTO regulations. Under the new system, the price for the popular red-label rice wine has surged from NT$21 to NT$130 a bottle -- mainly because of the addition of a NT$150 per liter wine tax applied because the wine is now classed as an alcoholic beverage rather than a condiment.
But salty rice wine retains its condiment status and is taxed at only NT$22 a liter. While it costs only NT$48 per bottle, most Taiwanese appear to have rejected the flavor of the product as sales remain bleak.
Su saw the pending WTO price jump as a chance to make a buck off of sky-rocketing rice wine prices through the desalinization process.
"We knew it was a good opportunity," he said.
Su and his partners initially drew up plans for the device in 2000, but actual production didn't start until July last year.
The Taipei-based company introduced two models of the rice wine desalinator yesterday, saying that the device offers restaurants and heavy drinkers a cheap way to eliminate the salt from Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Board's (TTWB,
The device can make 10 half-liter bottles of rice wine salt-free in five hours.
Su's company currently has two price ranges for the contraption: NT$68,000 for the economy model and NT$188,000 for the industrial model.
Seeking to protect the invention, Su secured a patent in Taiwan and is currently registering it in China as well.
A researcher at the TTWB's wine-tasting lab, however, cast doubt on the new invention saying the effectiveness of desalinization will be limited, Chinese language media reported yesterday.
But Su refuted the report, saying the popularity of the device with hotels and restaurants attests to its usefulness.
"We got more than 1,000 orders for the device today alone, with about 70 percent coming from restaurants in southern Taiwan," Su said.
"The TTWB should be thanking us because our invention will help boost sales of its salty rice wine products."
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