Taiwan ranks third in coffee consumption per capita in Asia, the latest Ministry of Agriculture data showed.
Taiwanese consume 1.77kg, or 177 cups of coffee, per person each year, less only than Japan and South Korea, at 600 cups and 400 cups respectively, the ministry’s Tea and Beverage Research Station said.
Although the nation mainly relies on imported coffee, there has been an increase in home-grown coffee bean production, the ministry said.
Photo: Yang Yuan-ting, Taipei Times
Cuttings and other techniques are commonly used to ensure domestic beans have stronger floral and fruity flavors, it said.
It is a fast-expanding market with Taiwan’s coffee consumption growing with a rate of more than 20 percent per year over the past five years, the ministry said.
Some Taiwanese beans have won top prizes at international competitions recently and domestic beans are often auctioned at high prices, it said.
“Taiwanese coffee producers mainly grow arabica beans, as it is believed to be self-pollinating and more productive, but our studies showed that arabica beans have a higher rate of cross-pollination,” research station director Su Tsung-chen (蘇宗振) said on Thursday.
“In this case, coffee beans have more genetic variations,” Su said. “It changes the original plant and makes it difficult to ensure consistency in quality and flavor.”
The station uses an asexual reproduction technique to maintain consistency in coffee beans, he said, adding that it can help preserve the purity of plants, and maintain quality and flavor.
Applied together with cuttings, the technique helps rapid growth and reproduction needed to boost acreage of coffee plants, he said.
“We also have developed a suitable medium for reproducing coffee plants through cuttings and other key techniques to determine the degree of maturity for the beans,” he said.
“These have enabled seedling producers and farmers to rapidly grow beans imbued with specialty flavors,” he said. “Therefore, we expect an increase in the quality and competitiveness of Taiwanese coffee beans in coming years, as we have passed on these methods to producers.”
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires