FloraHolland (31 januari 2012) - Taiwan’s flower exports rose 18 percent year on year to hit a record high of NT$5.18 billion (US$173.4 million) in 2011, thanks in large part to special floral production zones established in recent years, the Agriculture and Food Agency said.
The agency noted that the special zones it helped set up in Taichung City and six other municipalities and counties for the production of dancing-doll (oncidium) orchids, eustoma, chrysanthemums, flamingo lilies (anthurium) and several other new flower varieties exported a total of 40.82 million flowers last year with a combined value of NT$650 million.
“These figures demonstrate that the establishment of the special zones has had an industry cluster effect, bringing about an increase in both quality and production,” the agency said.
To promote Taiwan flower sales overseas, the agency began setting up export demonstration zones in major flower production areas in 2007, before expanding them to special flower production zones from 2009, assisting 10 to 20 of the zones each year in upgrading their production facilities. According to the agency, cooperation among government, industry and academia in the zones has helped to solve sales bottlenecks by establishing an export supply chain and stable quality control.
Despite major shocks such as the global financial crisis of 2008 and last year’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Taiwan has continued to smoothly export flower products to 68 countries and regions around the world, with the value of these exports jumping roughly 1.9-fold in the last decade, the agency explained.
The special production zones are also enhancing their collection of international flower industry information to consolidate Taiwan’s market share in major export destinations, including Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea and the U.S., while also working to expand sales in emerging markets such as mainland China and Russia, according to the agency.
Source: Taiwan Today 11/01/2012