A Variety of Flowers

　　The followings are reports about Green Flower Transport and Sale Cooperative we excerpted from various media

Small Landlords and Big Tenant-Farmers Flamingo Flowers from
Neimen District Have High Product Values

　　Look at this sea of flamingo flowers, so mesmerizing! This is Neimen Township, Kaohsiung County, and it is also the largest place of export of flamingo flowers in Taiwan.　　

　　Neimen Township used to be a stronghold of hog farming, but it started to shift its economic focus to growing flamingo flowers in 1997, and its production value has reached 1 billion and 20 million dollars every year. In order to improve the economic values of flamingo flowers, Council of Agriculture decided to implement the “Small Landlords and Big Tenant-Farmers” policy as well as providing lots of subsidies which does a great job in luring lots of younger people to take up farming in their hometown.

　　The ex-manger of a famous cosmetic company, Ms. Lai is one of the examples. Mr. Xue who used to be the head of a construction company also shifted his career successfully! The government will release four more hectares for growing flamingo flowers this November and it is estimated to accomplish the goal of a total of 8 hectares within the next 3 years! With the effective policy implementation, Neimen is sure to create another chapter of Flamingo flower legend.

　　There used to be a lot of hog lots in Neimen Township, Kaohsiung County. It was the business that many its townspeople used to depend on making their living and it has always been the scene of Neimen until the breakout of foot and mouth disease in 1997. It forced lots of hog lot owners to seek another alternative for making their living.

　　Since lands of Neimen Township are limestones and the soil quality is so poor that even weeds couldn’t grow from it, plus with its shortage of water supply, agricultural crops grown there have to require minimum water supply and do not depend on soil to grow. Flamingo flowers are chosen for the above reasons.

　　At first, the flower production & sale class was founded by farmers, later, in order to meet the demands of the global market, Green Flower Transport & Sale Cooperative was founded in 2005. The head of the Cooperative Mr. Lin Qing-Shan is a young man who has been participating in the project since the very beginning. He studied and developed technologies supported by the academia and specialists and grows quality flamingo flowers. With the support from the government, Lin is able to grow flamingo flowers as well as expanding its production. After years of hard-work, the total export quantity is about 30000 stems per week, making the Cooperative Taiwan’s best production efficiency in flamingo flowers, exporting to Japan, European Union, USA, Dubai, Korea, Hong Kong and Macao and Mainland China, and so on. The quantity of exporting to Japan alone is 3500000 stems.

　　Lin Qing-Shan said “The benefits of “Terminating Poverty with the Economy for the Poor” are bigger than I expected. During these 11-12 years, the product value of flamingo flowers increased from 4 million per year to now about 1 billion per year. It has become the major cash crop for many Neimen townspeople. We are indeed a big “Happy Farm” composed by lots of small farmers.”

　　When Lin first started to grow flamingo flowers, it took him a year and half to have the flowers blossoming, now it only takes 5 months to blossom; the technologies are improved and so is its production. With the assistance and hardworking of various people, the numbers of people in the flamingo flower production and marketing class he is in charge increased from 4 at first more than 100 people now.
　

At first, they used wood chips, rice husks and coconut shells to grow flaming flowers. Now they use self-developed W-shaped basin to grow anthuriums; in order to maintain the competitiveness in the international world, besides growing and managing anthuriums, Lin has to keep on developing and improving new spices. He admits that what he needs urgently now is research & development and marketing.

Looking through the shade, except for blue flamingo flowers, Neimen produces flamingo flowers in various colors. Red flamingo flowers make up the majority of the production, but still, they export flamingo flowers according to the individual needs of different countries. For example, white flamingos are favored in Japanese flower arrangement. Flamingo flowers grown in the Happy Farm have an average lifespan of 15-30 days and the wholesale price is at NT15 per stem. Each and every flower exported from the farm is beautiful without sickness. “That is our competitiveness to sell them at very good prices.” Now, Neimen flamingo flowers can blossom throughout the year, 1 leave for stem, plus the automated 2-phase sanitation, ensuring flowers are grown in a fresh, healthy, and full of sunlight environment.

　The cultivation technology and quality control of Neimen flamingo flowers are not only the best in Taiwan, the Cooperative is also the only cooperative in Taiwan that export flamingo flowers to different cooperatives all over the world via sea. Lin is a person of his own ideas and thoughts. He does not follow the market demands instead, he follows the trend. Take a look at the new specie flamingo flowers he cultivated, varying in kinds and looking truly amazing!

Head of the Agriculture Department of Kaohsiung County Zhang Qing-Quan said the currently hottest women’s topic “The ideal husbands used to doctors, now the crown is taken by flower farmers” to depict the bright future of the young Neimen flower farmers. From these hard-working, professionals with decent occupation and potential for future development, we also see the bright future for Taiwan’s quality agriculture. Of course, the strong promotion and support from the government are the strong pillars to support these young people for taking up farming.

Take the example of Council of Agriculture and Kaohsiung County Government supporting younger people to cultivate flamingo flowers, they designated a land of 44 hectares for the local unemployed people to register. Each gets a land of 586 square meters. In addition, the government also provides free fertilizers, technological advice and low-interest loans, all with an aim to encourage younger people to return to their hometown and join the team of high economic value agriculture and infuse it with their lively and industrious vitalities in order to create a new path for their own future.

The New Favorite for Mother’s Day – Flamingo Flowers instead of Carnations