Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar, 台糖) is seeking to expand its award-winning program that turns sugarcane waste into mushroom cultivation packs, the state-run company said.
The company yearly turns 400 tonnes of sugarcane byproduct into cultivation packs, Taisugar said at a news conference in Taipei on Thursday.
The packs contain 50 percent sugarcane waste and 50 percent sawdust, which the company determined to be the “optimal” ratio after experiments, it said, adding that the packs are then “rented” to mushroom farmers.
Photo: Lin Jing-hua, Taipei Times
“The reason we say ‘rent’ rather than sell is because we take back the used packs at the end of the harvest cycle,” Taisugar circular economy head Jan Chang (張建成) said. “We then further compost the used packs with other materials and sell it as compost.”
“This brings additional profit to Taisugar and ensures the packs are not irresponsibly disposed of,” he said, adding that some unscrupulous farmers dump used packs irresponsibly.
“We are trying to create a closed circle,” he said.
Farmers receive a double benefit from the program, as sugarcane waste is supplied to them at NT$2.5 per kilogram compared with about NT$3.4 for hardwood sawdust, which is usually used for growing king oyster mushrooms.
They also receive a 20 to 30 percent boost in yield compared with using pure sawdust, Taisugar said.
The company produces 50,000 tonnes of sugar per year, resulting in 130,000 to 150,000 tonnes of sugarcane waste. About 70 percent of the waste is burnt to generate electricity and the rest are composted, leaving room for growth in the cultivation pack program.
“There’s definitely demand for more from farmers,” Chang said.
Taisugar is working on different ways to expand the program, including cultivation packs with a higher percentage of sugarcane waste and recycling the plastic bags that hold the substrate.
“The technology is there to recycle the plastic bags used to make the cultivation packs, but we are still working on the economic feasibility,” Chang said.
While cane sugar once played a vital role in the growth of the nation’s economy, acreages have been declining as the cost of producing sugar has increased compared with imported sugar.
“We cannot compete on price with a country like Brazil with huge farms that allow for mechanized harvesting, but sugar is a necessity and we will keep some domestic production for food security reasons,” Taisugar secretariat director Hsiao Kuang-hung (蕭光宏) said.
The company’s cultivation pack program has won top honors in the “innovative service” category of the Taiwan Circular Economy Awards last month.
However, the program itself dates back to 2014.
“Before the circular economy became a buzzword, Taisugar has been working on minimizing our environmental impact and maximizing our resources,” Hsiao said.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
STILL LOADED: Last year’s richest person, Quanta Computer Inc chairman Barry Lam, dropped to second place despite an 8 percent increase in his wealth to US$12.6 billion Staff writer, with CNA Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) and Richard Tsai (蔡明興), the brothers who run Fubon Group (富邦集團), topped the Forbes list of Taiwan’s 50 richest people this year, released on Wednesday in New York. The magazine said that a stronger New Taiwan dollar pushed the combined wealth of Taiwan’s 50 richest people up 13 percent, from US$174 billion to US$197 billion, with 36 of the people on the list seeing their wealth increase. That came as Taiwan’s economy grew 4.6 percent last year, its fastest pace in three years, driven by the strong performance of the semiconductor industry, the magazine said. The Tsai