A Renaissance for

Soybeans (Glycine max) include varieties with seed coats in various colors, including yellow, black, green, and brown. Because yellow beans are the most common, people in Taiwan habitually call soybeans “yellow beans.”

Soybeans contain up to 40% protein and have other healthy components including lecithin and soy iso­flavones, making them a leading option for healthy dining in the 21st century. But did you know that in the tide of globalization, soybeans have also been part of important political and economic changes in both East and West?

Little beans, big history

Lin Chih-chung, an expert on Taiwan ethnobotany, once wrote: “In modern history, the soybean is the legume that has brought about the most astonishing changes in human ecology and culture.” The earliest wave of global inter­actions related to soybeans can be traced back to the early Republican period in China. At that time, a scholar named Li Shizeng (1881‡1973) studied in France and published a book about soybeans in French, while also establishing a tofu company in Paris to introduce Asian soybean-based food culture to Europe. Subsequently, processing techniques for making soybean oil were developed in Europe, which led to the founding of the world’s first soybean oil pressing industry in the US. This led to large-scale cultivation of soybeans in the Americas, with many countries there becoming world leaders in soybean exports.

Taiwan has naturally been part of this wave of globalization. Going back to the 1960s, the total area cultivated with soybeans (yellow, black, and edamame) once approached 60,000 hectares. But in the run-up to Taiwan’s accession to the World Trade Organization in 2002, based on the principles of market opening and reciprocity, there was a major increase in soybean imports, greatly impacting domestic soybean production.

Today, says Chang Nai-wen, a section chief in the Agriculture and Food Agency of the Ministry of Agriculture, Taiwan imports about 2.6 million metric tons of soybeans a year, mainly from the US and Brazil. Most of these are used by the edible oils industry to press soybean oil, and as feed in the livestock sector. Meanwhile, only 5,900 tons of soybeans are grown at home. This stark contrast is due, concludes Chang, to the fact that “as a result of production costs, currently domestically produced soybeans, which the government has been promoting for many years, are still more than twice the price of imported soybeans.”

Chang Nai-wen notes that most domestically produced soybeans are used to make food for human consumption, providing citizens with an outstanding source of protein while enhancing food self-sufficiency. (photo by Lin Min-hsuan)

Leguminous crops can fix nitrogen, increase organic matter and nutrients in the soil, and serve as alternate crops to wet paddy rice for crop rotation. The photo shows farmland in Hualien County where soybeans are being grown in rotation with paddy rice. (photo by Lin Min-hsuan)

Bringing beans back

Wet paddy rice has long been Taiwan’s largest crop. However, paddy fields require large amounts of irrigation water, and in recent years, due to climate change, there have ­frequently been water shortages during the first rice growing season. Moreover, agricultural agencies have been seeking to adjust the structure of grain production by turning over some of the land used for paddy rice to other staple crops, thereby increasing the domestic production and import substitution rate of such crops. Chang explains that in promoting greater production of various staples, the government intends for domestically grown soybeans to be mainly processed into high-value foods, providing citizens with an outstanding source of protein while improving national food self-sufficiency.

In 2016 the government launched the Big Granary Project, encompassing all aspects of alternate staple food supply from production and processing to storage and sales. Chang explains that in recent years, the government has actively supported farmers in transitioning to dryland crops, providing assistance ranging from improved varieties to better cultivation techniques. In addition to offering advice on crop switching, it has subsidized farm machinery and promoted a system of cultivation outsourcing to advance mechanization and smart farming, aiming to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and align with modern agricultural trends in order to boost overall industry competitiveness.

“Furthermore, we have adopted a system of corporate production zones, seeking out entities with management or marketing capabilities to engage farmers to grow crops under contract.” One of the benefits of contract farming is that production can be planned, with farmers producing precisely the amount ordered under the contract, thereby stabilizing farmers’ incomes. Another advantage is that processing factories can obtain reliable supplies of raw materials. This creates an integrated production and marketing chain. Chang says: “This method benefits both farmers and downstream agribusinesses. We set up the Taiwan Soybean Industry Alliance to integrate all steps in the process from farming and processing to transport and marketing, enabling businesses to cooperate even as they compete and so enlarge the size of the industry pie.”

In this era of heightened attention to food safety, all the soybeans grown in Taiwan are non-genetically modified crops. Moreover, the government’s Traceable Agricultural Products (TAP) system makes their production process transparent, and seeing the TAP label on a product provides assurance that the product is safe.

Taiwan’s agricultural research and extension stations breed climate-stress-resistant soybean varieties that are also resistant to powdery mildew and suited to cultivation in Taiwan’s soil.
(courtesy of Tainan DARES)

The government has promoted corporate-style production zones, subsidized the purchase of agricultural machinery, and set up a cultivation outsourcing system to attract more young farmers into growing soybeans.

Bean knowledge

We ask Lee Hsin-fan, assistant researcher in charge of soybeans at the Tainan District Agricultural Research and Extension Station (Tainan DARES), to give us the low-down on soybeans. To experts, these legumes can be black, yellow, or green, differing only in the color of their seed coats. ­Everyone has heard of edamame, the Taiwanese “green gold” that sells so well in Japan, but in fact edamame simply refers to immature soybeans which are harvested when 80% ripe and directly washed, graded, blanched and seasoned.

The growing cycle of soybeans, from seeding to maturation to harvesting, takes about four months, though varieties grown for edamame can be harvested after about three months. In Taiwan there are two planting seasons for soybeans, one in spring and one in autumn. The mission of the Ministry of Agriculture’s research and extension stations is to respond to global climate change by breeding stress-r­esistant varieties that are also resistant to powdery mildew and are suited to cultivation in Taiwan’s soil.

“The major soybean cultivars grown in Taiwan are Kao­hsiung Select 10, Tainan 10, Hualien 1, and the traditional Shidan [“ten piculs”] variety, now known as Jinzhu [“gold bead”],” says Lee. Kaohsiung Select 10, with the advantages of high adaptability and stable yields, boasts the largest area of cultivation. Tainan 10, meanwhile, has a high protein content and produces large, round beans. Hua­lien 1 is suited to organic farming and is widely grown in Hualien County. Meanwhile, the traditional Shidan strain, which was formally named ‘Jinzhu’ by National Chiayi University in 2014, has an especially high isoflavone content with a unique flavor that has caused food expert and long-time soybean fan Hsu Zong to say that Jinzhu is his favorite basic ingredient for soy milk.

The round green Traceable Agricultural Product (TAP) logo assures consumers that the food in the package is safe. (photo by Lin Min-hsuan)

Mechanized harvesting is conducted after the soybean plants dry out. Compared with imported soybeans, which must be transported long distances, locally grown beans are much fresher.

Whether­ through own-brand products or cobranding with businesses, domestically grown soybeans are gradually making their way back into the Taiwanese diet.(photo by Lin Min-hsuan)

A Big Man in domestic soybean production

Eleven years ago Chen Jian-wei, who had studied agriculture at university, returned home to Taichung and established the Big Man Agricultural Cooperative. At the time the Taichung City Government was encouraging young farmers to join the contract production program for soybeans, hoping to leverage their capabilities to build a new future for domestically grown soybeans. Chen explains, “The cooperative acts as a bridge for communication between production and marketing stakeholders.”

Most farms in Taiwan are small with limited production, so the role of Big Man has been to aggregate the soybeans produced by multiple farmers and connect with buyers. “We are like agents for soybean farmers,” helping them find good buyers and negotiating good prices for their crops. But conversely, Big Man has also been helping businesses by communicating their soybean requirements and specifications to farmers, to enable the farmers to grow crops that meet the purchasers’ expectations. 

At the start things were tough, of course, but Chen brought into play the skills of young people and introduced big data into field management, encouraging farmers to use agricultural drones to reduce field management costs. In 2025 Big Man has contracts with more than 900 farmers growing soybeans on 350 hectares of land, while in 2024 the total harvest for the cooperative was 473 tons. Yet, despite having farmers willing to sign on with Big Man, “the hard part of this industry is finding sales channels and helping everyone to sell what they have produced.”

Chen started with soy milk, “because soy milk is the liquid protein supplement most widely drunk by Taiwanese.” It helped that the Agriculture and Food Agency launched a program encouraging schools to use traceable domestically produced ingredients for school lunches, including soy milk. Big Man was one of the enterprises given guidance under this program, thereby opening up the school market. “This will create a fixed demand that supports agricultural development, and give this generation of children the collective memory of consuming domestic soy milk.”

In recent years, besides the increasing market penetration of Big Man’s own brand of soy milk, the cooperative has also marketed cobranded TAP soy milks in collaboration with chains like Muji, FamilyMart, and MOS Burger, greatly enhancing the visibility of its products. This year Chen hopes to promote the consumption of tofu made from domestically produced soybeans in schools.

Chen Jian-wei returned to his hometown to establish the Big Man Agricultural Cooperative, which acts as a bridge for communication between production and marketing stakeholders.

Cultivation of soybeans yields more than the crops themselves: In Taiwan, soybeans are synonymous with sustainability.

A harvest bigger than beans alone

The renaissance of crops like soybeans does more than simply offer Taiwan more avenues towards food self-­sufficiency, provide citizens with a selection of outstanding staple foods, and enhance resiliency through grain reserves. As Chang Nai-wen notes, “Legumes fix nitrogen and enrich the soil with organic matter and nutrients. The government is now promoting wet‡dry crop rotation—paddy rice one season, dryland crops the next—and soybeans are an ideal choice.”

Chen Jian-wei states: “Based on the intuitive demands of consumers, domestically produced soybeans have the advantages of being fresh and coming in diverse flavors.” These soybeans are fresher because they require fewer “food miles” (transport distance and time). Meanwhile, thanks to the hard work of agricultural research and extension stations in breeding diverse varieties that are designed to thrive in Taiwan’s terroir and climate, they are also incomparably flavorsome.

Thinking back on his initial ambitions in returning to his hometown, Chen says he “hoped to help to improve people’s lives.” Noting that soybeans produce less in the way of greenhouse gases and also use less water than wet-field crops, he points out: “They are a crop that makes the environment, farmers, and consumers all healthier.” As a member of the global community, he avers: “If you identify with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, then Taiwanese soybeans are synonymous with sustainability.”