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Mainland market ripe for Taiwan farmers

By Xing Zhigang (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-08-04 08:43

ZHANGPU: For She Tzu-yen, a 47-year-old Taiwan farmer, this small city in East China's Fujian Province has been a place of fortune.

Since he invested here two years ago, his orchid flower business has been growing fast, with this year's sales expected to reach one million pots valued at millions of yuan.

She has invested more than US$1.5 million into his company, owning a crop area of 14,000 square metres and employing 15 people.

"My business wouldn't have developed so vigorously in Taiwan," he told China Daily.

"Low labour and land cost as well as the huge market in the mainland have contributed to my success here."

She, who began to plant orchids when he was 18, only had a crop area of 1,000 square metres on the island before he moved here to start his business in March 2004.

Taiwan's labour and land costs are estimated to be 10 times those of the mainland and the island of 23 million people also suffers limited market demand, She said.

She's Changchow Saliya Orchid Biotechnology ING is one of the 51 Taiwan-funded agricultural enterprises in Zhangpu Development Park for Taiwan Farmers.

The park was established in early 2004 by Zhangpu and upgraded to State level in April this year to encourage agricultural co-operation across the Taiwan Straits.

It has a planned crop area of 30,000 mu (2,000 hectares), with six sections for flowers, fruit and vegetables, tea, fish, agricultural by-products processing and pasture. The park also provides incubation and technological services for start-up firms from Taiwan.

By the end of last year, the park had drawn investment of US$75 million and produced nearly 400 million yuan (US$50 million) of goods.

"The park offers a platform for agricultural industries across the Straits to get integrated," She said. Agricultural industries across the Taiwan Straits are highly complementary, given the mainland's abundant labour and land resources and Taiwan's rich capital and advanced agricultural technology.