The nation’s tea industry is estimated to have suffered losses of about NT$50 million (US$1.5 million) following Typhoon Morakot, which hit southern Taiwan last month, with the greatest damage to the sector occurring in Nantou and Chiayi counties.
Of the 16,000 hectares of tea farms in Taiwan, Nantou County’s account for about 50 percent, while Chiayi County has about 2,200 hectares.
However, about 400 hectares of tea farms were affected by the typhoon, while mudslides have completely wiped out some farms, damaged plantations or washed away roads connecting the tea farms to the outside.
PHOTO: CHEN HSIN-JEN, TAIPEI TIMES
Tea growers estimated that the production of autumn tea would drop by between 30 percent and 40 percent, and that of winter tea by between 10 percent and 20 percent.
The price of Taiwan’s popular mountain tea is determined by the altitude of the plantation — the higher the plantation, the pricier the tea. Under the rough guideline of “NT$1 per meter,” tea grown at an attitude of 200m can be sold for about NT$2,000 per jin (600g).
Fan Te-kuang (范德光), an official at a tea producers’ association, said that most tea growers in the Alishan (阿里山) area were unable to ship out their tea as the roads remained unusable. He said that as it would take at least one or two years for the tourism industry in Alishan to recover — even after the roads are repaired — the tea industry would also suffer as a result, with fewer tourists in the area.
While high-altitude tea is an important economic crop for the country, tea growers often face accusations that tea farms damage the ecosystem and undermine soil and water conservation in mountains.
“We actually pay more attention to soil and water conservation than anybody else, because tea farms are what we depend on for a living,” tea farmer Lee Kun-lin (李崑麟) said, adding that it was the cost of maintaining tea farms that makes mountain tea more expensive.
He said that high-altitude tea trees can only be grown at altitudes between 800m and 2,000m above sea level and that high-altitude tea plantations in Taiwan are only permitted on slopes that are no more than 30 degrees.
Most of the tea farms damaged by natural disasters were buried by the collapse of native vegetation and tea farms rarely collapse because of poor water and soil conservation, Lee said.
Council of Agriculture chief secretary Hsu Han-ching (許漢卿) said it was unfair to point a finger at high-altitude agriculture farmers every time a typhoons causes damage.
All agricultural activities in areas designated for agriculture are legal and high-altitude tea farms that comply with the law that were damaged by Morakot will receive help for recovery from the council, he said.
Warren Kuo (郭華仁), a professor of agronomy at National Taiwan University, said the council should take sustainability into consideration when developing high-altitude agriculture. Kuo said that aside from traditional agricultural activities local residents depend on for a living, there should be restrictions on the development of agriculture in mountains.
As for collapsed high mountain tea farms, it would be better not to reopen them, he said.
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