Quality teas and savvy marketing will help the nation's tea farmers withstand competition from abroad, tea farmers and government officials said yesterday.
As part of a new Council of Agriculture campaign, 10 teas were selected as the nation's best in a multi-stage blind-tasting competition yesterday.
At an event to award the prizes, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) exhorted tea farmers not to take their tea varieties and know-how abroad to nations with cheaper labor.
"Taiwan's tea needs to be protected by us all, don't make the short-sighted decision of starting farms abroad," he said.
Others acknowledged that cheap imported oolongs, often from farms started by Taiwanese, are already a reality in the nation's marketplace.
Nantou tea grower and one of the competition winners Tseng Chun-li (曾俊浰) said that although oolongs from Vietnam and Indonesia are inferior in quality, they are cheap and often sold mixed with local teas and labeled as local to fool consumers.
"Many are not discerning enough to taste the difference," he said.
Media reports in recent weeks have suggested that many farmers have allowed their tea gardens to go untended since tea prices are being driven lower by cheap imports.
At yesterday's event, however, few farmers seemed worried about a lack of demand.
"I started selling my tea by myself five years ago rather than selling to a wholesaler and I never looked back," said Hsieh Chao-yang (謝朝陽), a winner from Ilan County.
"I build relationships with my consumers by going to agricultural shows, and now many come to Ilan just to see my tea garden and buy my tea because they know what they're getting," he said.
Hsieh credits the council for helping him with the technical assistance required to market his own teas.
Hsieh and other quality tea producers can thrive by building their own "brand" teas and establishing a direct link to their customers, turning their tea gardens into tourist retreats, said Tea Research and Extention Station manager Lin Muh-lien (林木連).
"Inevitably, they cannot get top dollar from wholesalers," Lin said. "They also get a chance to market niche products, giving consumers more choice."
Tseng Jun-ting (曾潤廷), a Hsinchu County tea farmer who won a prize yesterday for his oriental beauty tea, said he used to sell his spring tea at rock-bottom prices to wholesalers as second-grade oolong because oriental beauty tea can only be made from summer grown tea.
"Then I found out if I make green tea out of it and sell it as it `honey green tea,' my customers love it," he said.
An alleged US government plan to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to form a joint venture with Intel to boost US chipmaking would place the Taiwanese foundry giant in a more disadvantageous position than proposed tariffs on imported chips, a semiconductor expert said yesterday. If TSMC forms a joint venture with its US rival, it faces the risk of technology outflow, said Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at the Taiwan Industry Economics Database of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. A report by international financial services firm Baird said that Asia semiconductor supply chain talks suggest that the US government would
ANNUAL LIGHT SHOW: The lanterns are exhibited near Taoyuan’s high-speed rail station and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the airport MRT line More than 400 lanterns are to be on display at the annual Taiwan Lantern Festival, which officially starts in Taoyuan today. The city is hosting the festival for the second time — the first time was in 2016. The Tourism Administration held a rehearsal of the festival last night. Chunghwa Telecom donated the main lantern of the festival to the Taoyuan City Government. The lanterns are exhibited in two main areas: near the high-speed rail (HSR) station in Taoyuan, which is at the A18 station of the Taoyuan Airport MRT, and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the MRT
Starlux Airlines on Tuesday announced it is to launch new direct flights from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Ontario, California, on June 2. The carrier said it plans to deploy the new-generation Airbus A350 on the Taipei-Ontario route. The Airbus A350 features a total of 306 seats, including four in first class, 26 in business class, 36 in premium economy and 240 in economy. According to Starlux’s initial schedule, four flights would run between Taoyuan and Ontario per week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Flights are to depart from Taoyuan at 8:05pm and arrive in California at 5:05pm (local time), while return flights
Nearly 800 Indian tourists are to arrive this week on an incentive tour organized by Indian company Asian Painted Ltd, making it the largest tour group from the South Asian nation to visit since the COVID-19 pandemic. The travelers are scheduled to arrive in six batches from Sunday to Feb. 25 for five-day tours, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. The tour would take the travelers, most of whom are visiting Taiwan for the first time, to several tourist sites in Taipei and Yilan County, including tea houses in Taipei’s Maokong (貓空), Dadaocheng (大稻埕) and Ximending (西門町) areas. They would also visit