Taiwan Today

The pineapple (Ananas sativus) is known in Chinese as "p'olo" or "phoenix-pear." It is an agave-like plant, originally native to tropical South America and now widely culti­vated in tropical and sub-tropical areas. It has rigid, spiny-margined, curved leaves and a short stalk with a dense oblong head of abortive flowers. Its fine, strong, flexible and lustrous fibre is used for native textiles, the pina-cloth, in some places like Malaya, Brazil and the Philippines and is thus often erroneously nick­ named "silk grass." Its fruit, a sorosis, has very juicy pulp and consists of succulent fleshy inflorescence, which ripens into a solid mass invested with tough persistent floral bracts and crowned with a tuft of small leaves. Its juicy pulp, which does not keep well in its natural state after picking, possesses the rare quality lacking in other ordinary fruits like pears and peaches of being able to retain both its natural color and flavor when preserved. There are at present only three large centers of pineapple canning in the world: Hawaii, Taiwan and British Malaya. During World War II, a varying degree of damage was done to all three centers of the pineapple industry, and especially serious in the case of Taiwan. Vast areas of land for the cultivation of the pineapple fell into disuse, while many pineapple canning factories were destroyed by Allied bombs. The production of canned pineapples in Taiwan dropped to 22,499 cases in 1945, or only 1.3% of the record yield of cases in 1940. The joint effort of the planters, experts and enterprisers in Taiwan to revive the industry following the restoration of the province to the Republic of China has indeed been a long and arduous one. It is not definitely known when and how the pineapple was first introduced to Taiwan. But the earliest record we have of its cultivation here is a vernacular geographical publication dating back some 250 years. It was also reported some fifty years later that pineapples from continental China were transplanted in Taichung, while the "Directory at Tamsui" published by the municipal administration of Tamsui in 1860 officially put on record the cultivation of the phoenix-pear in the vicin­ity of Peitou. Hence we may safely conclude that the pineapple was first cultivated in Tai­wan at least 250 years ago and that by the 1870's it was widely cultivated throughout the island. The first pineapple canning factory was established in Malaya in 1883. In 1899, a factory was established at Kaohsiung under the supervision of a Japanese expert named Okamura Shotaro. Two years later, the pineapple canning industry was started in Hawaii by a Mr. Dole. Through years of continuous expansion, research, improvement, this industry grew and prospered in Taiwan. In 1941, the export of canned pineapples from Taiwan to the Unit­ed States and Europe came to 621,159 cases, while 388,739 cases were shipped to the Chinese mainland. In 1935, more than 1,100,000 cases were shipped to Japan. By 1954, the amount shipped to Japan had markedly decreased. Although there are more than 50 known varieties of pineapples, they may roughly be classified into three categories: the Golden Pineapple, the Cayenne and the Spain. The Golden Pineapple generally has deep yellow pulp extraordinarily rich in juice and flavor but is not quite fit for refining because of its curved shape. The Spain has very sturdy leaves and the color of its pulp varies from white to yellow. Most suitable for canning, however, is the Cayenne, which has upward shooting leaves and a comparatively round fruit full of yellow pulp. The Golden Pineapple is abundant in Malaya, while the Cayenne, especially the Smooth Cayenne, is indigenous to Hawaii. This explains why canned pineapples from Malaya are always cut into little pieces, while those from Hawaii are always in slices. Originally, nearly all the species planted in Taiwan belonged to the Golden Pineapple family. It was not until the canning industry was started here that exotic species like the Smooth Cayenne, the Red Spain, the Sarawak and the Yellow Mauritius were introduced to this island. In 1922, when some of these exotic species were found by the enterprisers in Taiwan to be more economical and labor-saving to treat with machine tools, they were transplanted and cultivated in large quantities in various parts of this island. In 1929 alone, 393,790 plants were shipped to Taiwan for transplantation. Not all these imported exotic species thrive on the island. Some of them are unfit for cultivation in Taiwan for climatic reason; some need too much fertilizer, and others are too vulnerable to plant diseases. Furthermore, none of them is comparable to the local species in richness of flavor. Different methods are used for the cultivation of different species. The easiest method is applied to the local species, which needs little care or artificial fertilizer after planting (usually after the summer harvest) and can be cultivated annually on the same plot of ground. They are ordinarily planted among leafy legu­minous plants which have the property of ab­sorbing a great amount of nitrogen from the air and storing it in the leaves. These leaves fall and are left to rot in the soil, furnishing the pineapple with adequate natural fertilization. The delicate exotic varieties require much more care and labor. They consume a great quantity of fertilizer and exhaust the soil rap­idly. It is therefore impossible to grow them every year on the same plot of ground. Usu­ally, after three years of continuous cultivation, the land is left fallow for two years or is planted with the Clotalaria and the Thephnosia. As a result of scientific study, the annual basic needs of additional artificial fertilizer for each plant of the exotic varieties in moderately rich soil with a density of 15,000 plants per "chia" are 10 cgs. of nitrate, 6 cgs. of phosphate and 12 cgs. of potassium. In newly cultivates areas, a little sulphate is also needed to ensure favorable yield. All these unfavorable conditions-the additional care, the extra cost of fertilizer and the loss of two years' production every five years-are somewhat balanced by the work saved during the canning process and by the higher prices which these species fetch in the world market. The pineapple, like any other plant, is affected by climate and the nature of the soil on which it is planted. Though both the climate and the soil in Taiwan are generally suited to the growth of the pineapple, the fruit in the northern part of the island is not as large as that in the south, chiefly because of excessive rainfall, less sunshine and lower temperature. The best area for the cultivation of pineapples is along the eastern coast, particularly in the vicinity of Taitung, where the annual temperature averages 23.5℃ and the rainfall about 6,100 millimeters. On account of the problems of transportation, the low density of population in the east coast (twenty-eight persons per square kilometer) and the shortage of labor, however, the pineapple is not cultivated on a large scale in the eastern hsiens. This is the reason why the areas around Taichung and Kaohsiung remain the cultivation as well as canning centers. The pineapple generally has very strong resistance against diseases. It was free from any severe disease until 1931, when the newly transplanted exotic species were found to be suffering from wilt. Wilt is ordinarily introduced by insects such as ants and the pineapple Mealy Bugs, against which no absolutely effective insecticide has been developed, although derris and beutnite compounds have been found to be of some value. It is fortunate, however, that wilt is not so severe in Taiwan as in Hawaii, mainly because: (1) The climatic changes in Hawaii are steady and not so frequent and abrupt as in Taiwan where sudden torrents in summer usually serve to check the multiplication of these bugs; and (2) The planters in Hawaii often apply sulphate lavishly to the plant, making it more vulnerable to bug-bites, while in Taiwan artificial chemicals of this sort are seldom used. Aside from diseases brought by insects, there are diseases caused by various kinds of virus and fungi, the most common of which are the Phytophtora that cause stem-rot, the Thielaviopiris paradoxa that cause fruit-rot and those that cause fruit-rot "like the Heterodera morioni, the Thyenchus brachyurus, the Pythium fungus and the Pseudopythium fungus. Efforts are being made to stamp out these diseases in Taiwan. As pineapples do not keep long after being picked, the processing plants are kept extraordinarily busy during and immediately after the pineapple harvest. In fact, most canning factories in Taiwan operate a day shift and a night shift. Prior to 1922, when modern canning machinery was not generally used, the pineapple processing industry in Taiwan was small in scale and crude in skill. Most of the work was done by hand. After cutting the ends off the fruit and peeling the skin, the workers got rid of its hard core by driving a bronze bar down through the middle and then carved spiral grooves around the pulp to remove the spike. The pulp was then sliced into pieces and put into cans containing a set quantity of sugar or syrup in warm boiled water. After the cover was fixed and tightly sealed, the loaded can was steamed for 15 minutes in a temperature of 190 degrees Fahrenheit for sterilization and then immersed in cold water. Each pineapple required three minutes to handle and a skilled worker could treat only about 200 pineapples a day. At present, the minimum equipment of a modernized cannery in Taiwan consists of a guinaca that can strip 60 pineapples into a mass of pure pulp in one minute, a slicer that cuts the pulp into uniform slices or bits at a rapid speed, a packing-machine and a syrupper that take care of loading the bits or slices together with syrup into cans, a vacuum seamer, an exhaust-box and a cooker-cooler that sterilize and put the cans in their finished form in an automatic series. The cans must then be packed, examined, labelled and repacked. The whole process takes no longer than one hour. Whole slices can only be made from the fruit of the Cayenne family, while the other species, including the local, are ordinarily made into spiral slices, half slices, titbits or small pieces. Only about 40% of the pineapple crop is used for canning. Before 1935, no use was made of the refuse except as fertilizer. In recent years, the juice taken from the unused part of the fruit is made either into syrup or sauce or fermented into alcohol, liquor or vinegar. Vitamin-C, which is found in great abundance in this fruit, is extracted for dietetic or medical use. What remains is known as pine-bran. It is ground into powder, baked and then refined to serve as a substitute for coffee. In 1950, for example, the Taiwan Pineapple Company produced 137,400 kgs. of pineapple brandy, 240 litres of colored sauce, 240 litres of pineapple vinegor, 1,000 cases of sauce and 2,000 cases of canned fish treated with extracts of the remaining part of the fruit, aside from its main products of canned pineapples and pineapple syrup. In the same year, these by products brought a net profit of 37% over their manufacturing cost to the Company. Since 1922, the tin cans used for the pineapple canning industry have been supplied by a can manufacturing factory at Kaohsiung. While formerly the tin plates used for the making of cans were entirely imported, they arc now being made, and quite successfully, by our own factories. As the pineapple processing industry prospered in Taiwan, its market began to expand, comparable in quality to the products of Hawaii. Pineapples bring in a sizable amount of foreign exchange to Taiwan. In 1950, for in­stances, 25,063 cases of canned pineapples were shipped to Sweden and 57,000 cases to England. The export of pineapples brought in US$1,629,­945.77 in 1951 and US$2,012,418.10 in 1952. The figure is still rising. The peak record of pineapple production in Taiwan is 145,881 metric tons per year. According to reliable estimates, there are at least 50,000 chias of land fit for the cultivation of this fruit-plant on this island and capable of producing more than 330,000 metric tons, out of which some 6,600,000 cases of canned pineapples can be made. Given continued development, the future of the pineapple industry in Taiwan is indeed bright. * One chia is equal to 0.9699 hectare.