Taiwan Today

Former legislator Chen Kuang-fu has begun to make inroads into the international market with his Penghu First Liquor Co. After losing the local magistrate election, Chen decided to stay in his hometown and establish a business. Eventually, he opened a liquor factory there to make good on one of his campaign promises. Chen intends to model his venture after the successful example of the Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor Inc. to generate job opportunities for locals, increase incomes for local farmers, and funnel profits into local cooperatives to generate prosperity and wellbeing for the people of Penghu. With this in mind, Chen's distillery has in recent years engaged in continued research on making liquor out of various local crops, such as pumpkins, tithonia root and cactus. The efforts have been so successful that the distillery has won a National Quality Certification. Chen's company has even developed a unique high-alkaline kaoliang liquor that is different from the traditionally acidic liquors of its kind, earning itself a 10-year patent on such products in Taiwan, as well as inquiries about the groundbreaking products from a number of foreign distilleries and breweries. In one case, the company even received an order from Hong Kong for 80,000 bottles over a one-year period. It plans to export 6,000 bottles each month overseas. In the next two years, the company is looking to list on the over-the-counter market. Chen said the white spirits market among ethnic Chinese is valued at roughly NT$2 trillion (US$ 62.5 billion) each year, adding that if Penghu can snag just 0.1 percent of the market, it would translate to an output worth NT$10 billion. He is full of confidence in his company's ability to make a mark in such a market. Given that the demand for the liquor will also underpin demand for the related crops, he hopes that this will encourage even more farmers to join him in the venture by converting fallow fields to grow crops with economic value, as the crops would be bought by his liquor company, thereby helping raise the incomes of farmers and boosting local employment opportunities. (This article first appeared Jan. 21, 2010 in the “Liberty Times.”)