◆《What is rice production and
sales special area?》
After joining the WTO, Taiwan had to compete with imported rice. In
order to strengthen the quality and competitiveness of rice in
Taiwan, Agriculture and Food Agency, Council of Agriculture,
Executive Yuan promoted the Rice Production and Sales Special Area
Program in 2005. To put it in simple words, rice producing towns and
townships, rice growers, rice seedling cultivators, milling
operators, and marketing and sales agents were integrated to setup a
rice production and sales in one operation area. One advantage of
setting up this special area is that it helps reduce costs, expand
rice industrial business scale, and distinguish production area and
brand features. The consumption market will be prompted to place
importance on rice production area, variety, and quality
classification so that “high quality” and “high value” Taiwan Rice
can be created. In the following, we shall briefly introduce the
production and sales area in accordance with Rice Production and
Sales Special Area Work Manual setup by Food and Agriculture Agency.
◆《Minimum standard -50
persons, 60 hectares of rice fields,》
It is not an easy thing to
establish a rice production and sales special area.
The
special area can be consisted of rice dealers and farmer groups or
it can be applied by individual rice dealers and farmer groups.
Basically, the members have to be production, manufacture, and sales
persons including rice growers, seedling cultivators, milling
processors, marketing and sales staffs and they have to total to
over 50 persons. Participating rice growers also need to join
related lectures, trainings and competitions to improve rice quality
in the special area. They must comply with rice field operations
inside the special area. No self-operation is permitted. Other than
the minimum number of people required (50persons) the program also
regulates that contract rice field area in the special area is at
least 60 hectares and compulsory participation in double Paddy Crops
for Every Year (term 1 and term 2) deems necessary. In order to
ensure quality, rice fields in the special area should uniformly
purchase seedlings, pesticides, and fertilizers. The machinery
tillage service system is also commonly adopted to lower costs.
◆《Implementing strict
environmental testing and production traceability system》
It is not easy for rice growers to join the special area. First of
all, the production environments (including irrigation water source,
water quality, and soil etc) of their rice fields should first
be
assessed by Agricultural Research Institute, Council of Agriculture,
Executive Yuan or Agricultural Research & Extension Station, COA. In
order to ensure rice safety and quality inside the special area,
rice field irrigation water source is tested at least once annually.
Also, rice field soil metal content and fertility analysis tests are
conducted prior to each rice seedling transplanting term. Test
reports are submitted to supervisory bureaus for record keeping.
In addition to environmental testing, the special area also needs to
abide by reasonable fertilizer application and reduced pesticide
cultivation regulations so that ecological, safe, and standard rice
field operations can be truthfully implemented. Production
traceability, written, and digital production data pool entries
should be processing including peasant name, address, tillage land
location, area, cultivation variety, growth condition, soil
improvement, fertilizing, preventive chemical management, production
yield, and pricing.
◆《Brand sales adoption;
production and sales promotion center setup 》
One objective of Food and Agriculture Agency in promoting Production
and Sales Special Area is that it helps establish locally featured
brands. High quality rice is marketed and sold through branding.
Good Rice Classification System helps to enhance good pricing.
Meanwhile, rice grower and food operator benefits can be increased.
Therefore, operation bodies inside the special area should setup
brands which are duly registered at Intellectual Property Office,
Ministry of Economic Affairs, ROC. Take the two rice production and
sales special areas in Houbi Town for instance, Lian-Fa promoted
“Shan Shui Rice” in Shang Shui Rice Production and Sales Area and
“He Jia Rice” in Fang Rong Rice Production and Sales Special Area.
Another
reason for brand adoption is to introduce rice sales into the free
market mechanism and reduce governmental rice price subsidies.
Therefore, Food and Agriculture Agency regulated that rice growers
joining the special area should not submit public grains harvested.
They should be acquired by operation bodies in the special area
which are to be channeled to the free market in the form of
self-created brands. Having only a brand is not enough, marketing
and sales also have to be promoted. Other than product package
design, advertising, and approach sales [including the internet],
Food and Agriculture Agency also regulates that a 30-pin (a pin is
equivalent to 36square feet) production and sales promotion center
has to be setup inside the special area. It not only serves as a
venue for member training, and assembly, domestic rice store
operators, consumers and the media may also be informed onsite.
Cooking demonstrations, food tasting and assessments may also be
conducted. In conjunction with local recreational agriculture
marketing and sales promotion, rice products of the special area are
also promoted.
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