Taiwan Today

Floriculture has been an anomaly in Taiwan's agricultural sector for two decades: it grew stronger while most farmers in other areas experienced steadily declining earnings. With high-value products and steady domestic and export markets, flower cultivation seemed immune from the rising production costs and foreign competition that plagued other farm industries. But flower growers are no longer living on Easy Street. Although the domestic market is still growing, the competition is stiffer. More farmers shifted to floriculture as word spread that growing flowers was more profitable per hectare than any other crop. Moreover, the domestic market, which accounts for 90 percent of flower sales, is limited in size. For any substantial expansion, flower farmers must improve their export sales. But this will be difficult. Over the past two years, several countries in Southeast Asia have cut deeply into Taiwan's existing export markets. It is time for local floriculturists to learn a lesson that others in the agricultural sector learned the hard way. Consider the sad tale of the shrimp farmers. Combining the benefits of a year-round growing climate with highly advanced aquaculture technology, Taiwan became the world's largest producer of farmed shrimp in 1987. That year, farmers harvested 95,000 tons of the highly marketable tiger shrimp, Penaeus monodon. But the following year, a disease swept through the ponds and production was cut to 30,000 tons. Meanwhile, shrimp farming had stepped up in mainland China, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines, and the market void was easily filled. In a matter of months, Taiwan had lost its lucrative tiger shrimp market for good. Why? At the time, experts said it was more than a disease that destroyed the shrimp harvest in1988. The larger underlying problem was a lack of communication and cooperation among those in the business. Ponds were built too close together; farmers used no standardized method of farming, sanitation, or feed; and communication broke down between farmers and scientists concerning optimum cultivation methods. In the end, when production fell, there was no second chance for Taiwan's shrimp farmers in the global market. Lack of communication and cooperation seem to be major problems in Taiwan's agriculture. Whether a farmer grows crustaceans or chrysanthemums, an individualistic mindset prevails. After all, farming is the ultimate free-enterprise endeavor. Each farmer grows whatever crop seems likely to be most profitable, according to whatever technique seems likely to be most successful, while competing intensely with neighboring farmers for the same market. There is little opportunity for a spirit of cooperation to grow under these circumstances. Flower farmers cannot afford to follow the same game plan. The primary competition comes from abroad, not next door. Thailand, Singapore, and the Netherlands are big players in the marketplace, and they are organized. If local flower growers are to avoid the fate of the tiger shrimp farmers, they must learn to cooperate ―and do it now. Take a look at the competition. Thailand is now the world's leading orchid producer; yearly exports totaled US$80 million in 1991 and Thai growers are even penetrating such hard-to-crack markets as Hawaii. In addition, Thai growers have developed a US$1 million-per-year plant-cloning industry using tissue culture reproduction, a process that duplicates the cells of an original plant to form identical offspring. Thailand now sells the service to overseas flower growers. And even tiny Singapore exported US$13 million in orchids alone last year, and it plans to triple that figure this year. By comparison, Taiwan's entire flower export revenues totaled $10 million in 1990. Thailand and Singapore built their orchid industries by bringing together growers, exporters, government agencies, and corporate investors. To expand Thailand's tissue-culture business, for example, an orchid producer recently formed a joint venture with a Japanese electronics and bearings manufacturer. The partnership is now developing what will be the largest plant-cloning facility in the world. Meanwhile, much of the work under way to build Singapore's orchid industry is a cooperative effort by the growers, the Singapore Botanical Garden, the National University of Singapore, and the Singapore government. Such a spirit of cooperation is the missing link in Taiwan's flower industry. One way to bring growers and wholesalers together is to build membership in existing industry associations. The Taiwan Floriculture Development Association, begun in 1972, has only 108 member growers and wholesalers; the Taiwan Floriculture Exports Association, begun in 1981, consists of 40 member exporters, down from 54 in1988. Once growers and wholesalers strengthen the means of cooperation, they can work together to convince government agencies, corporations, and universities that floriculture development should be a higher priority. There is plenty of room for improvement. Currently, the Council of Agriculture has less than a handful of people assigned to the floriculture industry. Meanwhile, although more universities now include floriculture in their curricula and more government grants are now available for flower research than was the case ten years ago, communication between academics and growers still needs to be improved. And there has been little success in securing R&D funding from corporate sponsors. The only company currently involved in large-scale floriculture research is government-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation. Some experts say that Taiwan has the potential to lead the world in flower production. But before floriculture can grow, those in the industry must plant and cultivate the seeds of cooperation.