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.
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