The country has a strong domestic market for flowers and plants and while it is exporting some of its production, it is predominantly limited to its neighbours Japan and other South East Asian countries.
Around 12,000 hectares of land is devoted to flower production, which is organised and sophisticated, although, as with the fruit and vegetable sector, it too suffers from its fractured, small-holding style nature.
However, the industry has exploded in size over the last couple of decades - there was only around 400ha in production in the mid-1970s.
Production ranges from the traditional such as chrysanthemums, roses and lilies to the more exotic Oncidium and Phalaenopsis orchids. Apparently the country has more han 360 species of native orchid and production of the flowers represent around 22 per cent of the industry. Cut flowers, meanwhile, make up almost 50 per cent of the sector
“High quality orchids are the main flowers exported,” said Tim Chen, of the Yore Li Flower Company. His company is one of the leading flower export businesses in Taipei, handling around 60 per cent of the sendings to Singapore, among other markets. “Exports are rising all the time,” he says.
The value of those exports is also climbing, with statistics from the Council of Agriculture for 2003 putting exports of both plants and flowers at around $58.7 million, up from $52.7m in 2002. Those figures contrast sharply with the export picture a few years previously, with just $8.6m worth of flowers and plants being exported in 1996.
Taipei also houses the largest of the country’s five wholesale flower markets, the Taipei Flower Auction.
King-wang Chen, section chief, says the market, which was built in 1997, deals mainly with the domestic market. The vast majority of the products traded are grown locally, he says, and the market handles around 45 per cent of the country’s flower production, worth around NT$1.7 billion.
While the market is the major exporter to Japan, it is beginning to look at the opportunities in other countries and has set up an export task force to build trade and promote its produce.
It is not the only market investigating the opportunities for export. Kaohsiung International Flower Market is also making moves in this direction.
In 2003 the market was equipped with advanced automated facilities and computerised operating systems and some insiders say the higher technical standards at Kaohsiung put it in a stronger position to begin exporting to markets like the UK.
The Agriculture and Food Agency is also providing support and help to the flower sector, and is working on developing the industry through the implementation of new technology to aid production and also a shift in that production to high value crops, such as superior varieties of Phalaenopsis.
The improvements in production methods and varieties will give the industry a better chance on the export markets, something that could prove vital says Mike Dodd, of UK importer Connaught Flowers.
“With mainland China attempting to isolate Taiwan further the emphasis on all industries to export more is of great importance.”
However, he says at the moment, the potential of the Taiwanese industry to export their flowers to the UK remains uncertain.
“Although a large percentage of the product grown would be considered export grade the small owner farmers who make up the majority of growers are not organised enough to collaborate on exporting.”
However, there are signs that this is starting to change, he acknowledged, and the government is keen to encourage this, combined with the fact the Taiwan External Trade Development Agency is promoting the country’s production overseas along with the Taiwan Floriculture Development Association and other consultants are being retained to explore opportunities.
Taiwan is certainly starting to make its presence felt on the international markets by visiting and taking part in trade shows from Dubai to Norway.
However, Dodd says: “Government funded projects are common but are only now starting to be directed towards the floricultural and agricultural sectors. This said the emphasis must come from the growers themselves and apart from two auction houses there doesn’t seem to be much will at present to achieve greater exports.”
Those auction houses however are attempting to encourage exports by putting in place the systems necessary to export to a wider customer base, as well as employing English-speaking sales people and generating promotional material in English.
Dodd says there is a ready market in the UK for some of the core Taiwanese products such as Oncidium, Cymbidium and Phalanopsis orchids, Anthuriums, Calla lily and Oriental lily.
“The orchids are of exceptional quality and initial trial shipments to UK were received with much praise. The Anthuriums should prove to be a success but the lilies will be harder to sell as prices here are governed by what happens to prices from the Dutch auctions.”
The biggest difficulty facing the Taiwanese on the export market however is cost. With limited scale and cost-intensive production, their offering is not going to be cheap - and this coupled with the expense of getting the product to market in the first place makes competing in a market like the UK a challenge.
However, work is underway to reduce the costs of transport, says Dodd. “Airfreight remains a major problem with current rates nearly double that we would pay for a similar distance from South America. Negotiations are continuing on this point and it looks hopeful that we will be able to reduce rates to an acceptable level.”
However, at the moment, the flowers are expensive and Dodd says the Taiwanese need to focus on high value products in the meantime, rather than the everyday flowers such as roses, lilies and chrysanthemums.
Of course, the opportunity is not all just in Taiwan’s favour either, Dodd is keen to point out. “It is not all one-way traffic, because home demand for flowers
in Taiwan is so strong, their own growers are not able to fulfil the demand at certain times of the year opening up the possibility for exports from the UK.”
He said his company currently has some samples of Narcissi on the way to Taiwan from the Scilly Isles. “Narcissi hopefully is only the start and other products can be found to fulfill gaps in the market.”
So, while there might still be significant hurdles to overcome, Taiwan still has considerable potential for flower export, and may even provide an opportunity for enterprising UK companies too.
PULI UP FOR WUSHE EXPANSION
The Puli Township is one of the biggest regions for floral production and the Wushe Nursery is one of the leading producers of orchids in the area.
Set high in the mountains, around 1,700m above sea level, towards the centre of Taiwan, the nursery produces Tiger orchids under cover on around half an acre.
The lower temperatures in the mountains aids production, but the danger from hurricanes means structures, such as greenhouses, are often put at risk.
The size of the farm is typical of the industry out in Taiwan, but according to the producers in the Puli region, their expansion options are limited. “The government does not allow farmers to expand too much in the mountains because of the risks from typhoons and hurricanes,” said one.
The government would rather see trees being planted in the mountains, ahead of greenhouses, they said. “We can expand as much as we like outside of the mountains, but then the temperatures aren’t as good.”
The orchids at Wushe are under production from October through to February and each plant produces around three stems of flowers.
