Taiwanese orchid farms generated more than NT$7 billion (US$215 million) in revenues out of a total of NT$19 billion created by the nation’s floriculture industry, yet the future of orchid farmers is less bright than the raw figures would suggest, the Taiwan Orchid Breeders Society said.
Association secretary-general Yang Yi-ping (楊怡萍) on Saturday said the nation’s orchid breeders are predominantly elderly farmers who are having trouble passing on the torch and a generational faultline would most likely come into being in a decade’s time.
Though young people are recruited into the profession, breeding a cultivar of orchids takes about six years on average, compelling many farms to start buying from foreign sources, Yang said, adding that the practice endangered the key advantage of cultivar development.
Photo: Lee Wen-te, Taipei Times
Stimulating domestic demand is one of the main ways to bolster the orchid industry, since exports already make up 85 percent of the trade’s income, she said.
Cultivar research and development are foundational to floriculture and Taiwanese farmers created about 50 patented cultivars last year and the same in the year before, Agriculture and Food Agency Fruit and Flower Industry Division deputy chief Hung Hung-yi (洪宏毅) said.
The agency’s priorities of helping the orchid industry consist of measures to enhance research and development capabilities, recruiting people from academia, protecting intellectual property and promoting international sales through hosting expos, he said.
To boost domestic demand, the agency and the Taiwan Orchid Breeders Society on Saturday jointly hosted an event promoting sacrificial orchids for temple rites.
The event, which spotlighted the use of An Ching Orchids’ cultivar called Little Apple as an offering for peace and tranquility, was held at Fuhsin Temple in Yunlin’s Siluo Township (西螺), where bouquets were distributed to the faithful attending religious services.
All proceeds from the sale of orchids at the event are to be donated to the St Joseph Social Welfare Foundation, an association spokesperson said.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
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