Did You Know That…?
- Located in Pingtung County's Dawu mountain range, Taiwu Village enjoys a natural environment that is exceptionally friendly for growing coffee, with gentle mountain slopes that climb to 800 meters above sea level, providing moderate heat and humidity.
- In a region where the annual temperature never exceeds 24 degrees Celsius, Taiwan acacia shrubs flourish, resulting in a shadowing effect that contributes to the production of high-quality coffee beans.
- Prior to the revitalization of the local coffee industry, Taiwu residents once chopped down coffee trees for firewood. Now that the commodity tree has regained its status in the Taiwu community, it has become an artistic medium for painting, sculpturing, and engraving.
Read more about Taiwu Village here or scroll down for pictures.
The planting of coffee trees in Taiwu can be traced back to the Japanese colonial period. The beans were once exported to Japan as a product reserved for royalty, but when the colonial period ended, gone also were the coffee-processing skills; coffee plants and their red fruits were left to be gradually taken over by weeds.
Not until the early 2000s was the coffee tree once again the spotlight of the local community. Its visibility also increased as aid from the government poured in after Typhoon Morakot pummeled southern Taiwan in 2009.
However, only a few have successfully broken into the international market, and those that do have taken advantage of the opportunity to receive aid from the public sector and other sources. For example, the Pingtung County Government has subsidized half the price of heavy-duty machinery such as a coffee bean peeler and a coffee bean decorticator that is owned jointly by the town.
Taiwu's coffee beans are also grown organically. Since April 2011, the government initiated a project to encourage coffee growers to obtain organic certification. So far, more than 18 coffee farmers have been awarded certificates by the Taiwan Formosa Organic Association.