For She Tzu-yen, a 47-year-old Taiwan farmer, this small city in
east China's Fujian Province has been a place of
fortune.
Since he invested here two years ago, his orchid flower business
has been growing fast, with this year's sales expected to reach one
million pots valued at millions of yuan.
She has invested more than US$1.5 million into his company,
owning a crop area of 14,000 square meters and employing 15
people.
"My business wouldn't have developed so vigorously in Taiwan,"
he told China Daily.
"Low labor and land cost as well as the huge market in the
mainland have contributed to my success here."
She, who began to plant orchids when he was 18, only had a crop
area of 1,000 square meters on the island before he moved here to
start his business in March 2004.
Taiwan's labor and land costs are estimated to be 10 times those
of the mainland and the island of 23 million people also suffers
limited market demand, she said.
She's Changchow Saliya Orchid Biotechnology ING is one of the 51
Taiwan-funded agricultural enterprises in Zhangpu Development Park
for Taiwan Farmers.
The park was established in early 2004 by Zhangpu and upgraded
to State level in April this year to encourage agricultural
cooperation across the Taiwan Straits.
It has a planned crop area of 30,000 mu (2,000 hectares), with
six sections for flowers, fruit and vegetables, tea, fish,
agricultural by-products processing and pasture. The park also
provides incubation and technological services for start-up firms
from Taiwan.
By the end of last year, the park had drawn investment of US$75
million and produced nearly 400 million yuan (US$50 million) of
goods.
"The park offers a platform for agricultural industries across
the Straits to get integrated," She said. Agricultural industries
across the Taiwan Straits are highly complementary, given the
mainland's abundant labor and land resources and Taiwan's rich
capital and advanced agricultural technology.
"When we invest in Fujian, we feel like we are coming home,"
said Rie-ho Lee, chairman of TenFu Group, a tea company based in
Zhangpu.
"That tells why an increasing number of Taiwan investors and
farmers have come to Fujian to pursue new business
opportunities."
The 71-year-old man set up TenFu Group in 1993 and now owns
6,000 mu (400 hectares) of land for growing tea on the
mainland.
His group has established 560 franchise tea shops on the
mainland, with an annual revenue of 700 million yuan (US$87.5
million).
Lee stressed that hundreds of thousands of Taiwan farmers like
him have benefited from the mainland's preferential agricultural
policies towards the island.
As a goodwill gesture, Beijing decided to allow tariff-free
imports of 15 varieties of Taiwan-grown fruits in May 2005 and
added 11 types of vegetable and some aquatic products to the list
in April this year.
Marketing center
The central government also ordered the establishment of a
marketing center in Xiamen, which is close to Taiwan, to reduce
costs for fruit imports from Taiwan.
So far, 86 Taiwan business firms have established shops in the
center, which imported 360 tons of Taiwan-grown fruit valued at
US$400,000 in the first half of this year.
Huang Cheng-ching, general manager of Taiwan's Yu-ching Farmers'
Association, expressed his thanks for the mainland's
incentives.
But he strongly complained about the lack of cross-Straits
direct transport links, which has become a major hurdle for fruit
trade between Taiwan and the mainland.
Taipei has yet to lift its decades-old ban on the three direct
links business, transport and postal services - across the Taiwan
Straits.
As Taiwan's fruit has to be transported to the mainland via Hong
Kong or Macao, it usually takes at least seven days.
"If there were direct transport links between Taiwan and Xiamen,
it would take only 22 hours and thus sharply reduce our delivery
time and transport cost," Huang said.
Since the first Taiwan-funded agricultural firm was established
in 1981, Fujian has approved 1,894 such enterprises, with
investment of US$1.32 billion, ranking top on the mainland. In
2005, agricultural trade between Fujian and Taiwan amounted to
US$61.64 million.
(China Daily August 4, 2006)