President Ma Ying-jeou is concerned about Taiwan’s agricultural development. Accompanied by Chen Bao-ji, Minister of the Council of Agriculture (COA), President Ma visited Lin Wang Tea Factory in Luye Township of Taitung County on April 19, seeing the development of the tea industry in tea-growing areas and listening attentively to local farmers’ opinions. President Ma lauded Mr. Lin Yao-jing, owner of the tea factory, for his using group cultivation and introducing safe medication and sanitary tea-making technology. By combining the traditional primary and secondary tea-making industries with leisure and rural experience, Lin developed the tertiary tea service industry, thus constructing a new value chain of the tea industry in six levels. President Ma asked the COA to fully assist in adjusting the structure of traditional industries and extend the industrial value chain. In this way, traditional sectors can be transformed into exquisite and high-quality fashion industries, which can recreate a new look for Taiwan’s agriculture.

President Ma experiences service industry of Taitung’s specialty tea, instructing the COA to support it all out

With Lin’s guide and explanation, President Ma looked around Lin Wang Tea Factory , which improves its cultivated varieties and production technology under the help of COA . This tea factory is devoted to group cultivation as well as sanitary and safety management of the tea production inside tea-growing areas. Therefore, it was rated as a five-star tea factory in 2012 and 2013 consecutively, highly recognized by retailers and consumers. In addition, the tea factory also participated in COA’s “action plan of highlighting tea factory and tea service industry.” By means of tea-picking and tea-making experience as well as students’ work exchange, it transformed its business into a service industry and increased the total value of this industry.

Afterwards, President Ma personally experienced how to make “fruit tea” by taking the pulp out of a locally grown fruit (pomelo), stuffing the fruit with tea leaves, tying it up, and roasting it. Then it becomes fragrant “fruit tea” with the special aroma of pomelo and tea. After sipping “Taitung Red Oolong,” a specialty tea in Taitung’s tea-growing areas, and listening to farmers’ suggestions, President Ma said that the tea-making experience is rich in industrial promotion and educational marketing. It can combine education with entertainment so as to enhance humanistic value. Thus, he instructed the COA to reinforce the assistance in integrating local culture into traditional agriculture to add traditional industries with more features as well as construct a new industrial value chain.

COA strengthens competitiveness of tea industry, recreating a new value of tea sector

The COA stated that in the face of challenges and competitions from trade liberalization, it is an important opportunity for Taiwan’s tea industry to start transformation and enlarge export. In order to assist the transformation of the traditional tea industry, the COA has continuously invested in support resources and gained fruitful results:

1. Include tea in ECFA list of early harvest and boost export of fine tea: After Taiwan signed ECFA with mainland China, China’s import tariffs dropped from 15% to zero, which led to a significant growth in exports of Taiwan tea. In 2013, 893 metric tons of Taiwan tea were exported to China, an increase of 272 metric tons compared with the previous year. The export value reached NT$402 million with a growth rate of 112%.

2. Improve varieties and technology, and enhance added value: The COA’s Tea Research and Extension Station (TRES) continues to develop new varieties and improve tea-making technology. Thus, “Red Oolong” becomes a famous local specialty tea. The TRES acquires the certificate of origin for “Taitung Red Oolong” and promotes traceability system for market segmentation. Many people really like it.

3. Strengthen sanitary and safety control, and assist industries to upgrade: The COA promotes group tea-producing areas, adopting joint pest prevention and safe medication in tea gardens. Thus, quality tea is grown and produced. The acceptability rate of sampling inspection increases to 97%.

4. Review and relax regulations: The COA relaxes the restrictions on land use of tea-processing factories, which helps them obtain factory registration to facilitate export promotion.

The COA stressed that tea industry is one of Taiwan’s important agricultural industries, with an output value of around NT$6.7 billion. If taking tea-related marketing and related industries (such as leisure experience, arts, etc.) into consideration, its output value can reach over NT$30 billion. Through interdisciplinary integration in the future, the COA aims to develop a healthy, safe and high-quality Taiwan tea industry, thus recreating new value for Taiwan's tea industry.