Since Taiwan’s 2002 entry into the World Trade Organization, our agricultural industry, which had been expected to suffer badly under WTO, has not only put down deeper roots on the island, but also reaped rich new harvests from abroad.
Spurred by fierce international competition, the local industry has transformed. Agricultural villages once deemed “backward” have grown prosperous with earnings from overseas markets. Production, processing, and sales have merged into a complete production chain, and our rice, edamame, and cut flowers have been sold to markets spanning the globe.
Taiwanese tea, on the other hand, which half a century ago was an important earner of foreign exchange, has transitioned from a mass-market export item to a premium product largely consumed by the domestic market. Tea processors complain that tea’s production chain is broken and that the industry is shrinking itself.
Taiwan may have ridden out the WTO wave, but still larger trade-liberalizing breakers are rolling in. Taiwanese agriculture has accounted for the food needs of our island’s 23 million citizens. Will it now set its sights on world markets?
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