lower farmer keeps roots in Taiwan
Selasa, 19 Oktober 2010
Chen Liang-bin never imagined that booming demand for his anthuriums -- also called flamingo flowers -- could bring him headaches.
Customers in China want to sharply increase orders to 3 million a year -- 300 times the total number of orders last year, said Chen, chief of a floriculture production and marketing group in Neimen Township in southern Taiwan's Kaohsiung County.
lower farmer keeps roots in Taiwan
"The demand from China is really too much, " said Chen, who has planted anthuriums in Neimen -- Taiwan's largest plantation zone for the flowers -- for 11 years. "We cannot simply cut our supply to Japan in order to meet the growing Chinese demand -- at least not for now."
Anthuriums rank second on Taiwan's cut flower export list, following orchids. Japanese like to use them for a traditional type of flower arrangement, and have made Taiwan the top source of anthurium imports to Japan.
As of the end of September, anthurium production in Neimen reached 2 million, already surpassing its full-year production in 2009.
