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Zhangpu park
threatens farmers
By Du Yu §ù¦t
Sunday, Feb 28, 2010, Page 8
Over the recent Lunar New Year holidays, Chinese President Hu Jintao (JÀAÀÜ) made
a special trip to Xiamen in Fujian Province to visit the Zhangpu Development
Park for Taiwanese Farmers. This park poses a great threat to Taiwan¡¦s
agricultural sector.
Trying to get Taiwanese farmers on its side has been an important part in
China¡¦s united-front strategy against Taiwan. Zhangzhou, a city just north of
the development park, has worked assiduously to encourage Taiwanese, especially
farmers from central and southern Taiwan, to bring their capital, crop and
animal varieties, as well as technological and managerial skills, and set up
businesses there. The establishment of a development park for farmers to attract
Taiwanese businesspeople, farmers and technological know-how is a very clever
strategy that has succeeded because of ¡§matchmaking¡¨ by retired government
officials and disgruntled political hacks from Taiwan.
The Zhangpu development park is located just across the Strait from Taiwan. Many
Taiwanese have their family origins here and the local dialect is very similar
to the Hoklo, commonly known as Taiwanese. These features made the area the
first testing ground for China¡¦s promotion of an experimental cross-strait
agricultural cooperative zone.
In April 2006, the development park was established in Zhangzhou City¡¦s Zhangpu
County. It included a technological service center, a business development
center and six special industrial development zones for flora, fruits and
vegetables, tealeaves, fishery and the processing of agricultural and related
products, as well as livestock products.
Sixty-eight Taiwanese-owned agricultural companies operate within the park, as
well as three individual industrial and commercial households established by
Taiwanese farmers. They have invested a total of US$110 million and have an
annual production value of 1.5 billion yuan (US$219.8 million).
The park is also introducing almost 200 varieties of high quality Taiwanese
species and crops, such as shrimp, red drum, abalone, grouper, beans, tea
leaves, high-quality fruit, butterfly orchids and regular orchids.
It covers more than 141,600 hectares, which accounts for two-thirds of the total
agricultural land in the entire Zhangpu County. The park is also encouraging the
development of more than 30 types of advanced technology like the cross-breeding
of Chinese and Taiwanese varieties of shrimp and special packages for fruit and
organic goods. The cultivation of butterfly orchids has proven to be a major
industry within the park.
The park has an annual production value of flora worth NT$500 million (US$15.6
million) and the flora has been exported to more than 20 western countries.
Taiwanese-owned agricultural businesses have already made US$421 million in
foreign exchange from the Zhangzhou region, with an annual export quantity of
more than 44,000 tonnes of vegetables, more than 200 tonnes of short necked clam
meat, more than 1,150 tonnes of crab meat, more than 3,000 tonnes of products
made from ginger and exports of flora that have made as much as US$7 million in
foreign exchange.
It is obvious that people setting up businesses in the development park are not
only taking Taiwan¡¦s precious resources over there, they are also introducing
advanced cultivation techniques and management skills, as well as passing on
abundant experience in sales and marketing.
In just a few short years, one single development park for Taiwanese farmers has
spurred rapid development of the agricultural industry in China and has
increased the foreign exchange earning-power of China¡¦s agricultural products.
This will without a doubt threaten the opportunities for Taiwan to export
similar products produced here.
There is reason behind the worries of our farmers and the Taiwanese government
should recognize the severity of this problem and adjust the pace of
cross-strait agricultural exchange.
Du Yu is a member of the Chen-Li Task Force for Agricultural
Reform.
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