Butterfly orchid producers have introduced radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in a move that is expected to raise productivity, agricultural researchers said on Thursday.
As competition in the global orchid market becomes increasingly fierce, research fellows at the Taiwan Agriculture Research Institute said the nation needs to introduce new technology to sharpen its competitive edge in the sector.
Saying that RFID is a powerful emerging technology that enables companies to keep better track of their assets, tools and inventories, the researchers said introduction of the technology to the orchid business will help improve the accuracy of order delivery dates and quantities, thereby increasing customer satisfaction.
If RFID technology is integrated with other automated production and management systems, local orchid productivity could also be raised significantly, the researchers said.
Saying that orchid cultivation — and butterfly orchids in particular — plays a very important role in the nation’s agricultural sector, an official from the Council of Agriculture’s (COA) Taiwan Agriculture Research Institute said Taiwan must pull out all the stops to breed new orchid hybrids and develop new cultivation know-how to maintain its market niche.
The latest statistics released by the council show Taiwan’s flower acreage totals about 13,475 hectares, with an annual production value of about NT$12.36 billion (US$374 million).
The figures account for only about 1.78 percent of Taiwan’s total agricultural production acreage and 7.34 percent of the total annual farming production value, respectively.
Despite the relatively small share of horticulture in terms of acreage and total production value, the official said the unit production value in the sector is about NT$918,000 per hectare.
Among the various floral species cultivated commercially, orchid farms cover about 592 hectares, but their combined annual production value amounts to NT$2.874 billion, representing a unit production value of NT$4.86 million per hectare and indicating that orchids are a high-yielding cash crop.
In comparison, butterfly orchids occupy an even more central role in terms of economic advantage. Butterfly orchids account for only 33.8 percent of the total orchids farmed but export value accounts for 75.2 percent of the total orchid production value.
These figures signify the importance of breeding new butterfly orchid cultivars and developing new cultivation technologies, the official said.
Through years of strenuous efforts, Taiwan has managed to develop greenhouses that suit the nation’s climatic conditions and has established a cultivation system that can ensure perennial blooming of orchids, the official said.
While local butterfly orchid production acreages and values have continued to increase, with Japan and the US serving as the principal export markets, the official said locally produced orchids have been facing ever fiercer competition from the Netherlands, China and Southeast Asia in recent years.
Against this backdrop, the official said, continued quality improvement and upgrading of productivity has become very important in the effort to sustain Taiwan’s butterfly orchid industry.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and