A delegation composed of representatives from Tainan City Government and Chinese Taipei Baseball Association gave a presentation to the WBSC Executive Board in Paris to petition to make Tainan a permanent hosting city of the U-12Baseball World Cup. There were a total of 30 board members from over 20 countries present at the March 23 meeting. Mayor Li Men-yen gave a clear and organized speech on Tainan’s various endeavors and presented the city’s confidence and determination to win the bid. The presentation, supported with exciting and informative video clips, was received with a round of applause from the board members, including WBSC president Riccardo Fraccari, showing that Mayor Li Men-yen has successfully completed this city diplomacy mission.
The Vice President expressed that Taiwan’s orchid industry has plenty of resources to offer, as the island is home to a wide variety of species and has been growing the blossoms for centuries. The local orchid industry has been developing for more than two decades and has world leading breeding techniques. Taiwan exports orchids to 86 countries, including the US, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, and Vietnam. According to statistics from the Council of Agriculture, Taiwan’s total flora export value in 2016 was USD 187.81 million, among which orchids made up 82%. In 2017, the export value of butterfly orchids was the highest and accounted for 68.5% of the total export value. After President Tsai came into office, the government rolled out The 5+2 Industries Plan, and orchids are listed as one of the major items in the quality agriculture category. Orchid export revenue increased ten times from NTD800 million in 2005 to NTD 9.2 billion in 2017, which may show that Taiwan has become an important place of origin for orchids in the international orchid market.
Mayor Li pointed out that the Taiwan Orchid Plantation, which encompasses an area of 175 hectares and is also the venue for the Orchid Show, has the largest cluster of orchid industries in the world. Currently the plantation has 83 businesses located on site which employs a total of 819 people and has an accumulated revenue of 21 billion, showing that this is indeed a major industry in Tainan. For this year’s Orchid Show, the organizer collaborated with other industries such as orchid precision agriculture, bio-tech, culture & creative and tourism industries. The city government also allocated a 55 million budget to set up a Taiwan Orchid Species Business Service Center which offers information related to the innovation, management, trading, showcasing, and protection of orchid species. Li mentioned that the Taiwan International Orchid Show, the Japan Grand Prix International Orchid Festival, and World Orchid Conference Show are the three largest orchid shows in the world, and the 23rd World Orchid Conference will be held in Taiwan in 2020, which shows Taiwan’s importance in the global orchid industry.
TAITRA Chairman James Huang said that TAITRA hosted the 2018 International Orchid Growers Trade Meeting on March 1 at Shangri-La's Far Eastern Plaza Hotel, Tainan. A total of 22 buyers from 13 countries showed up and held over 300 one-to-one conversations respectively with 40 Taiwanese orchid suppliers. The procurement opportunities this year is estimated to reach USD 15.24 million; and 54 buyers from 18 countries were invited to come to Taiwan for orchid sourcing and buying. Hopefully this will be an opportunity to create more orchid trades between Taiwan and international orchid businesses.
There were nearly 1400 entries for the 2018 Orchid Show Competition . The Grand Champion was selected from the five group champions: Jian Guo-fu, Su Xin-fa from Haur Jih Orchid, Weng Jing-tian from Tzeng-Wen Orchids, Li Cang-yu from Char Ming Agriculture Co., and 4N Orchids. The final Grand Champion winner Phal. Charming Prince ‘Lee1287’ was cultivated by Char Ming Agriculture and belongs to the “big lip” breed. It has a nice branching feature and has blossomed 142 flowers from 3 spikes with only a three-year planting time out of bottle. Like a frothing white waterfall from a distance and a bridal veil close up, this type of orchid stood out among the other entries.
The TIOS Taiwan International Orchid Symposium and 2018 TIOS World Orchid Business Forum were held in the TOVCC International Conference Center on March 3. The 2018 TIOS World Orchid Business Forum, hosted by Agriculture and Food Agency Director Chen Jen-ping, invited orchid experts from the US, Japan, the Netherlands, Mexico, Brazil, Vietnam, etc. to talk about and exchange ideas on the current situation of orchid industries and future trends.
The 2018 Taiwan International Orchid Show was inspired by a scene from the preface of the “Orchid Pavilion Collection” written by Wang Xi-zhi during the Song Dynasty. The theme of the Show is “A distinguished gathering in the orchid pavilion called “Lan Ting”, where friends meet within orchid full blossom around”, which also implies that orchid experts and orchid lovers from all over the world has formed a significant gathering here in Tainan because of our shared love for orchids. Other attendees at the event include AIT Director Kin W. Moy, foreign representatives and delegations from 44 countries, AOS President George Hatfield, guests from TOGA, buyers, experts and scholars. This year’s Orchid Show has seen the highest number of participating countries and is expected to bring in ten billions of export orders.