A trial run of a flower cold chain covering Taiwan has been completed and is ready for use, but the additional costs would be reflected in prices, the Taipei Flower Market said on Thursday.
Heat, which flowers are often exposed to while being transported, causes yellowing and wilting, prompting the market to push for a cold chain.
Taipei Flower Sales Ltd, which runs the market, said that it has purchased trucks with temperature monitoring and control capabilities that have facilitated cold chain transport of flowers from growers to the market.
Photo: Yang Hsin-hui, Taipei Times
Chang Yu-wei (張育瑋), director of the Taipei Market Affairs Department’s retail division, said that the upgrade was made in stages, starting with storage at the market before tackling transportation.
Without cold chain supply, flowers would only last two to three days after arriving at the market, but with the system, they can last up to a week, Chang said.
Taipei Flower Sales said that it collaborated with the Nantou County Government, the Taichung City Government and the Agriculture and Food Agency to establish the logistics network nationwide.
Without such a system, Taiwan’s flower industry — which has 14,520 hectares of production and is valued at NT$17.6 billion (US$635.61 million) — cannot compete internationally, Agriculture and Food Agency Director Hu Chung-yi (胡忠一) said.
The cold supply chain is complex, as the flowers have to be prepared after they are picked — with different packaging required depending on the flower — then transported to Taipei, where nearly half of the nation’s flower transactions occur, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said.
Taipei Flower Sales chief executive officer Chang Tang-mu (張堂穆) said that the system, while yielding fresher flowers, would also bring higher prices.
However, the company would try to enforce a 10 percent cap on price fluctuations, he said.
There are two routes, one with two trucks from Taichung’s Houli (后里) and Sinshe (新社) districts, and one with five trucks from Nantou County’s Puli Township (埔里), with both systems ending in Taipei, he said, adding that the company is in talks to purchase more trucks to increase the transportation rate.
Chang Yu-wei said that deliveries via the cold chain would reach 35 percent of overall supply, while the company and its collaborators would continue to develop the system.
The cold chain supply would boost flower sales, he said.
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