Family organic food business struggles to prosper

They started by leasing 0.6 hectares of land in Chiali, Tainan County, and borrowing NT$500,000. Then Lin and Shih Na-li, better known as Tomo and Nono, set about learning the business of organic farming from the ground up.

“Because we had never worked on a farm before, we had to start from scratch to learn about agriculture, and had to do so in very short time,” Lin said.

They spent the first year on the farm experimenting with various exotic crops in an effort to find those that were best suited to local conditions. They did all the manual work themselves and sought the advice of experts from several agricultural research institutes and improvement stations.

According to Chen Chun shi of the Council of Agriculture, one of the main concerns for organic farmers is that the work is more time consuming and the yield is less than if conventional farming practices are used.

Another major challenge is pest control, as pests thrive in Taiwan's hot humid summers and its winters are not cold enough to stop the proliferation of insects.

“Under normal conditions, only one third of the organic vegetables planted are harvested. The rest of the crop is more often than not destroyed by insects, and if the weather is unfavorable, there is usually nothing left to harvest,” Tomo confirmed.

Nonetheless, Tomo and Nono gradually acquired expertise in growing organic crops. But they soon faced another challenge, as they had to apply their minds to the business of selling their produce in an uncertain market.

In 1996, there were 160 hectares of land organically farmed in Taiwan. By 2008, nearly 1,000 households in the country had become involved in organic farming, and 2,386 hectares, or less than 1 percent of the nation's farmlands, were dedicated to organic crops, according to Chen.

Tomo and Nono, who were trying to break into the business in the late 1990s, had to first assess the market.

“I conducted a market survey and we forged partnerships with department stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets that agreed to distribute our produce,” Lin said.

Within a few years, the couple had gained a reputation as expert growers of organic vegetables, and the business, which they called Genki Home, had earned profits of NT$10 million.

Having gained momentum, Tomo and Nono decided to expand the business by buying the land they were farming and leasing other plots close by.

They also contracted some of the cultivation to other farmers in an effort to meet the growing demand for their organic vegetables, and that's when the trouble started for Genki Home.

A batch of vegetables grown by the contract farmers was found to contain pesticide residues and this led to a series of returns and cancellation of orders.

According to Chen, when farmers decide to shift to organic farming, they have to let their fields lie fallow for three years in order to get rid of the chemicals in the soil.

The crops are then planted and fertilized with natural organic fertilizers such as soybean residue, grain powder, and rice bran, he said. There is no use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, or genetically modified organisms, he added.

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