With the help of former urbanite Chen Shui-huei, organic jujubes from Gongguan Township in Taiwan’s northern county of Miaoli are making a name for themselves among consumers.
Now in her 40s, Chen worked in Taipei for seven years in the news media and four years in information services, but wearied of a life of nonstop pursuit of better business performance. An animal and life science major in college, as a child she had dreamed of becoming a farmer. In 2007, after her parents became glued in front of the television every day following their retirement and her beloved border collie was diagnosed with glaucoma, she decided it was time for a change.
“During my leisure time, I would surf the Internet to see if there was any land for sale, while on weekends, I’d drive around, searching,” Chen said.
“I looked at a lot of places in New Taipei City, but the clammy weather and unreasonable prices made me turn to Taichung City, where my relatives live and the weather is drier. But again, I was disappointed with the price of NT$30,000 (US$1,000) per 3.3 square meters of land.”
Just as there seemed to be no hope, Chen met a Miaoli local through a friend. After three trips to explore the area, she felt that Gongguan, with its many irrigation ditches and crystal clear water, was the perfect place for a new home. Following numerous house-hunting expeditions and negotiations with landlords, she finally obtained a plot of land in Shiqiang Village in 2008. As there was a small orchard of around 60 jujube trees on the land she purchased, she settled in to become a jujube grower.
According to Chen, cultivation of the jujube, also known as the Chinese date or red date, began in Taiwan in 1875 when a friend presented Chen Huan-nan of Gongguan with two jujube trees from mainland China. Gongguan, due to its shallow soil, good drainage and large day-night temperature differences, proved to be well-suited to growing the fruit.
Jujubes, rich in vitamin C, niacin, calcium, iron, phosphorous, protein and bioflavonoids, has been grown in mainland China, where its health effects have long been recognized, for more than 4,000 years. The pharmaceutical classic “Compendium of Materia Medica” by Li Shizhen, first published toward the end of the 16th century, states that jujubes protect and strengthen the spleen and stomach, as well as helping in the production of blood cells.
Contemporary medical research indicates that the fruit can help cure anemia and high blood pressure. With both traditional and modern support, jujubes are frequently used in Chinese medicine.
As jujube trees are very vulnerable to diseases such as leaf rust, growers have traditionally used chemical fungicides and other agricultural chemicals. Only in recent years, with increasing popular attention to health and environmental protection, have they started to promote organic jujubes.
But as Chen’s crop was just about ready to harvest when she first moved to Shiqiang, and she was new to fruit growing, she stuck with the use of agricultural chemicals that year.
Her first experience spraying her orchard came as quite a shock, however. Although the chemicals were diluted and she was fully equipped with a mask and other protection, the pungent smell still found its way into her nostrils, making her wonder whether the fruit was really safe to eat.
From this episode, and from watching other farmers spraying for leaf rust or using herbicides to get rid of weeds to save the labor of hoeing, Chen was determined to promote organic jujubes, and began implementing environmentally friendly methods the second year, when she also established the Jujube 24K brand together with neighboring farmers who shared her concerns.
According to Chen, breaking up the earth around the trees is very important for organic farming. “Chemicals used previously harden the topsoil and pesticides kill the beneficial bacteria under the ground. Actually, these bacteria help trees absorb nutrients, so if they are eliminated, more chemicals are then needed to help the trees grow.
“In organic farming, you have to think of ways to revive the helpful bacteria, and one way to do that is with organic fertilizer made of a mixture such as rice bran, sawdust and chicken manure.”
Jujube trees begin to bud after the Lunar New Year, and flower and fruit during and after the Tomb Sweeping Festival in April, she explained. Harvest season is from July to September, while the leaves begin to fall when cold air currents arrive in November and December. Afterward, the trees go dormant until February. “Before the trees go dormant, you have to fertilize them so they can take up nutrients and become healthier in the coming year.”
Organic farming requires more labor and is thus more costly, so many local growers are still watching and waiting, Chen said. Those who have decided to go organic get marketing help from Jujube 24K.
To qualify, farmers must use organic fertilizers; reduce or eliminate toxic fungicides, herbicides and pesticides; allow their fruit to be inspected for chemical residues before picking; keep complete and accurate records of orchard management; provide labels with harvest and expiration dates; ensure that their jujubes are 100 percent additive free, which means no artificial compounds or sulfur smoking can be used to dry the fruit, and no growth hormones; and use no herbicides for weeding.
In addition, they have to be primary producers, not middlemen.
Chen said local growers sell their crops in a very traditional way. During the harvesting period, wholesalers visit the orchards to check out the condition of the fruit, and then bid on it. At the beginning of the harvest, jujubes may fetch NT$100 (US$3.3) per 0.6 kilogram, but the price can fall as low as NT$40 or NT$50 at the season’s peak, which means that farmers’ incomes are very low. Jujube 24K’s marketing aims to get around this system.
In addition, packaging used to be no more than a simple zip-close bag, with no indication of expiry date. “Logically, the clearer the label, the more confidence consumers will have in the product, but this point never crossed the minds of my fellow farmers,” Chen said.
“As many people don’t immediately eat the jujubes they purchase, we designed special bags using nontoxic materials,” she noted, adding that their packaging is now made from corn starch and is biodegradable.
“Some of my colleagues went so far as to take green packaging courses. And after a few years of promotion, even the farmers’ association began to use better materials to package their jujubes.”
Seeing that her efforts are gradually paying off, Chen said she hopes to work with her team to further promote Gongguan’s jujubes abroad. “The fruit is a high-value crop containing diverse nutrients at different stages of the harvest cycle, so we have to enhance its surplus value by developing a range of products taking advantage of this characteristic,” she said. With this idea in mind, Chen continues to explore more opportunities for local jujube farmers. (THN)
Write to Grace Kuo at mlkuo@mofa.gov.tw