Dear Editor,
I found your June cover feature "Taiwanese Farm Products Go International" an excellent introduction to Taiwan's tropical fruit. But as far as potential power on the international stage is concerned, Taiwan's oolong tea is streets ahead.
I had the pleasure of watching this year's national championship tea auctions, and was greatly impressed by the buying power of the tea industry when bidding for Taiwan's top teas. I started wishing all of Taiwan's agricultural products could enjoy such tremendous support from both industry and consumers.
Rooting for the award-winning tea growers were their good friends, who had come north with them. No matter what the tea, if it was made in their hometown, the people in the crowd would give it their backing.
When finally the champion tea took the stage, it was greeted with an even bigger round of applause. This year's winner was produced by a farmer named Chen Hsi-ching from Luyeh Township in Taitung County. He explained to the audience how the organic fertilizer he uses on his tea plantations includes bean powder to make it more nutritious, and that weeding is done by hand. These old-fashioned methods are hard work, but they've proven their worth. This is the trick to growing good tea.
The lowest bids at the auction were NT$30,000 for one Taiwanese catty, but the first bid for the champion tea was NT$250,000 for the same amount, and it shot up from there. When drinks company Vitalon bid NT$770,000, a shock went through the crowd. Doctor Tea was not fazed by this challenge, and raised the bid to NT$780,000. Finally, in celebration of their 50th anniversary and in a show of fierce determination, Vitalon secured the lot with a bid of NT$880,000, making this year's champion tea an even bigger earner than last year's.
Vitalon also hopes to purchase half of Chen's crop from the same season to use in their products. They will invite him to act as technical consultant, to give the consumer the best tea at a good price, and to help spread tea culture to the younger generation.
This year's auctions not only got Taiwan's tea industry into the news, but also gave those in the industry a lot to smile about. They gave tea production in Taiwan immeasurable publicity, which is the perfect start for successful marketing.
Li Sheng-yi, chairman of Ten Ren's Tea, says that last year Ten Ren bid NT$460,000 on their champion tea, but the publicity this gave them could be valued in the tens of millions of dollars. In fact, prior to that Ten Ren's Tea was suspected of being contaminated with pesticide residues, and there were rumors that they had taken to importing cheap tea from China to try and exploit the market. This had a huge negative impact on the company's reputation. Landing the top tea at the auction proved to be the best possible publicity, and Ten Ren's Tea soon became a byword for Taiwanese tea and the top Taiwanese brand in China. Business came pouring in.
As your feature said, Taiwan's produce must rely on quality to make its mark on consumers, and marketing requires imagination so as to give everyone the chance to enjoy these excellent products.
