Going international
To survive, the mango industry in Taiwan has utilized production and marketing regulation and has made great strides toward meeting high quality and environmental demands. Also, in view of the small domestic market, the government has taken on the challenging international market as a top priority and has begun actively to gather data and make preparations.
In the late 1990s Europe experienced outbreaks of mad cow disease and foot-and-mouth disease, which led to an awakening of consumer consciousness. In the fiercely competitive international market, consumers are paying increasing attention to food quality and safety. European fresh produce retailers thus initiated EurepGAP (Euro-Retailer Produce Working Group Good Agricultural Practices) in 1997 and within three years drafted standards that went into effect in 2000.
In January, 2002, Taiwan joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). The market was opened up and imported fruit began pouring into the country. On the one hand Taiwan agriculture was facing ruthless global competition, but at the same time it now had the opportunity to market its products globally on an equal footing.
On this account, the Council of Agriculture put forward a policy centered around "quality, safety, leisure, ecology." The most important element in this approach was to develop "safe agriculture." This set up a mechanism for agricultural products that provided information on the entire process, from the management of production in the field all the way to the consumer's dinner table, in order to meet the demands of EurepGAP and the Japanese "Production Record System."
Through the combined efforts of government and citizens, and with the guidance of experts headed by Lin Tzong-shyan, Fruit Tree Production and Marketing Team #20 of Nanpei, Tainan, finally passed and received EurepGAP international certification as a result of its rigorous quality control and monitoring of the entire production process.
Lin emphasizes that "safe agriculture" not only can raise consumer confidence in domestic agricultural products, the selling price of these products may rise because of the "empowerment" they get from certification. At the same time, this win-win approach, concerned as it is with both farmer income and consumer food safety, will be the niche for Taiwan agriculture as it competes in the future with other low-production-cost countries.