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Dahu Township, Miaoli County, Taiwan - a small strawberry, making a big industry

author:Village Rally Number

Miaoli County is located in the south-south coastal area of the northern part of Taiwan Island, adjacent to Hsinchu County to the east, the Taiwan Strait to the west, Taichung City to the south, and Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County to the north. Dahu Township is located in the south of Miaoli County, with an area of 90 square kilometers, surrounded by mountains, 300-700 meters above sea level, not affected by the northeast monsoon, mild climate, sufficient rainfall, coupled with breakthroughs in production technology such as fertilizer management and variety improvement, the strawberries produced are of excellent quality.

Dahu Township, Miaoli County, Taiwan - a small strawberry, making a big industry

Dahu Township is the place with the largest strawberry production, the largest planting area and density, and the most advanced planting technology in Taiwan, with a strawberry planting area of up to 500 hectares, accounting for more than 80% of the strawberry planting area in Taiwan, and is a veritable "strawberry kingdom". From November to April, the Great Lake is the strawberry season, and the smell of strawberries fills the air from the main road to the country path. Two-thirds of the township's farmers grow strawberries for their livelihood and receive more than 1.5 million visitors a year. Driven by the strawberry industry, the per capita income of strawberry farm operators can reach NT$600,000 to NT$1 million (about NT$140,000-230,000 at the current exchange rate), and Dahu Township has also become a model village with good development in Taiwan.

Dahu Township, Miaoli County, Taiwan - a small strawberry, making a big industry

Next, let's walk into the Great Lake Country and see how this "strawberry kingdom" is refined.

Strawberry cultivation in Dahu Township began in 1957, and was originally only grown and sold as an ordinary fruit, but due to the poor location and transportation environment, strawberries are not easy to preserve, so the economic benefits are not obvious, and the planting area is relatively limited. It was not until the 70s of last century that Taiwan began to learn from the development experience of Japanese agriculture and vigorously promoted business models such as leisure farms and citizen farms, that strawberry picking sightseeing gardens began to develop. The first to try it was local farmer Xu Zhiwen, who first opened his own strawberry farm for tourists to pick in 1978, and under his influence, the strawberry tourism industry began to take off. Later, under the impetus of Taiwan's "One Township, One Characteristic" program, the strawberry tourism industry in the Great Lake became better and better, becoming a well-known brand in Taiwan. However, in the 90s of last century, the homogeneous competition of the strawberry tourism industry in the Great Lake became increasingly fierce, and the revenue gradually declined, and the strawberry tourism industry entered a bottleneck period of development. At this time, Taiwan put forward the concept of "exquisite agriculture", and the first generation of leisure agriculture, which was mainly based on tourism, was gradually upgraded to a functional composite leisure agriculture.

Dahu Township, Miaoli County, Taiwan - a small strawberry, making a big industry

Guided by policy guidance and driven by market demand, the Great Lakes Rural Farmers' Association led the development of two projects, the Great Lake Winery and the Great Lakes Strawberry Cultural Center, which were operated in 2002 and 2004 respectively. Driven by these two projects, the strawberry industry in Dahu Township has embarked on the road of branding and integrated development of the whole industry chain. At present, the strawberry industry in Dahu Township has formed a comprehensive development model integrating production, sales, research and development, promotion, cultural creativity and festivals and leisure.

In terms of production and planting, Dahu Township shapes high-quality strawberry products and picking experience through technological innovation. Strawberries in Dahu Township are now mainly grown on elevated shelves, a method invented by Fan Rust Long, a farmer at Hilltop Orchard Farm, for which he won Taiwan's Shennong Award. Strawberries are planted on shelves, which can use the space for multi-layer planting, and the elevated drainage is convenient on rainy days, and strawberries will not rot. What's more, during the planting and picking process, there is no need to bend over, which is very beneficial to good health. Under the elevated shelf, there is a bio-induced trapping device for the strawberry pest, the nocturnal moth, and under a cylindrical container is placed a mineral water bottle, which is equipped with a bio-inducer that can attract nocturnal moths within a radius of 1 km.

Dahu Township, Miaoli County, Taiwan - a small strawberry, making a big industry

This biocontrol technique reduces the use of pesticides, is very safe, and also reduces the worries of picking tourists. In addition, the strawberry plantation in Dahu Township also ensures the quality and taste of strawberries through variety improvement, water and fertilizer management, such as difficult to cultivate, and unique quality white strawberries are also common here. Today, 90% of the rice fields in Dahu Township are planted with strawberries, 35%~40% of the output is used for tourists to pick, and the rest is processed into various strawberry products.

Today, more than 300 strawberry farms have been formed in the Great Lake Township. Among them, Yumeda Farmer Strawberry Farm, International Strawberry Farm, Qiqi Strawberry Farm, Mountain Love Strawberry Farm, Famous Strawberry Farm, Coincidental Strawberry Farm and Liuhe Strawberry Farm are the largest and most famous. These strawberry farms are both large and white strawberries, which can be described as different. Many of the operators of strawberry farms are young people, which also reflects the economic benefits of strawberry farms.

Dahu Township, Miaoli County, Taiwan - a small strawberry, making a big industry

Based on the foundation of the strawberry farm cluster, the Great Lake Winery and the Great Lake Strawberry Cultural Center led by the Agricultural Association have further extended the strawberry industry chain and achieved integrated development of one, two and three. The first countries in the world to make strawberry wine were Canada and the United States, and Great Lakes Winery is known as the third winery in the world and the first in Asia to make strawberry fruit wine. Great Lakes Winery continues to improve its research and development technology, and has the most advanced fruit wine brewing technology in Asia, which is praised by anyone who has drunk Great Lake strawberry wine. Great Lake Winery retains the original sweet flavor of strawberries with low-temperature brewing techniques, and mainly produces a series of strawberry wines, such as lakeberry love, strawberry light wine, strawberry sweet wine, drunken love plum, reserve love berry, challenge fifty and other products, strawberry wine from 6.5% to 50% of the wine is produced. What's more special is that Great Lake Winery is the only winery in Taiwan that does not accept bulk orders, and consumers need to visit here in person to purchase the wine products produced by Great Lake Winery. The winery also has a winemaking center and a tasting center for consumers to visit and taste.

Dahu Township, Miaoli County, Taiwan - a small strawberry, making a big industry

The strawberry snack street is the most nostalgic place of the winery, where strawberries are used as raw materials for a variety of snacks that make people salivate: strawberry hot dogs are a hot product on the street, and the golden puff pastry is covered with strawberry-flavored German sausages and poured with tomato sauce. The strawberry-shaped buns are very cute, and the filling is strawberry-flavored bean paste, as well as various unexpected snacks such as strawberry jam steamed buns and fried strawberries; And strawberry desserts such as strawberry cheese, strawberry ice cream, strawberry cake and so on are even more.

Dahu Township, Miaoli County, Taiwan - a small strawberry, making a big industry

The Strawberry Culture House is also located within the Great Lakes Winery and has been in operation since 2004. On the first floor of the Strawberry Culture Center is the agricultural products exhibition area, where a large number of strawberry-related products are displayed, both developed in-house and produced by partner companies.

Great Lake strawberry wine, strawberry pudding, strawberry vinegar, strawberry jam, strawberry dried beans, strawberry wine sausages and other strawberry products allow tourists to feel the taste of strawberries all year round, very popular with tourists, of which strawberry wine sausages are innovative products developed and developed, very popular, in the tourist season, 3,000 pieces can be sold a day; In addition, strawberry pillows, strawberry mugs, strawberry dolls and other cultural and creative souvenirs are also very interesting and are good tourist souvenirs. The second and third floors are the strawberry ecological education area, and the second floor is the screening room, which shows the introduction videos of the Strawberry Cultural Center and surrounding attractions from time to time, each film is about 15 minutes long, and interested tourists can make an appointment to watch. The third floor is the strawberry ecology permanent exhibition area, the main content is to introduce strawberry ecology, strawberry history, strawberry breeding management, harvesting, eating and other related knowledge, edutainment, very interesting. The 4th floor is a restaurant that serves strawberries as an ingredient and offers strawberry specialties. The 5th floor is the sky garden sightseeing area, which is planted with a variety of temperate flower horticultural plants and colorful plants. This is a great place to get a bird's eye view of the Great Lake, which offers an idyllic view of the Great Lakes region.

Dahu Township, Miaoli County, Taiwan - a small strawberry, making a big industry

Another characteristic estate in Great Lake Township is Chocolate Cloud Village. This is a chocolate-themed four-star hotel, and the most popular activity here is that people can bring freshly picked strawberries to process them into a variety of strawberry chocolates, or they can DIY themselves and experience the fun of making chocolate. In addition, the park buys 10 to 20 tons of strawberries from farmers every year for processing, producing products such as strawberry cider that are popular with tourists, and also enhances the value of strawberries in the Great Lakes, achieving a win-win situation for the park and farmers. Although Chocolate Yunzhuang focuses on chocolate themes, it is also integrated into the local strawberry industry chain and belongs to the pan-strawberry industry chain of "strawberry + theme accommodation". It can be said that the strawberry industry in the Great Lakes Township is the foundation of tourism, and the tourists brought by strawberry leisure have promoted the development and growth of other tourist attractions and tourism services.

A small strawberry, made a big industry. The development history and achievements of strawberry industry in Dahu Township are successful cases of integrated development of primary, secondary and tertiary industries under the promotion of agricultural associations, driven by leading projects, and guided by the strategy of professional and brand development. Below, we briefly explain the inspiration and thinking that this case brings us.

First, attach importance to the leading role of leading projects

In the process of strawberry industry development in Dahu Township, the leading role of the two leading projects of Dahu Winery and Strawberry Culture Center cannot be ignored. Before this, the strawberry industry in Great Lakes Township was only a collection of strawberry farms, and it was these two projects that promoted the development of strawberry processing and strawberry in-depth experience, and then played a pivotal role in shaping strawberry culture and brand communication in Great Lakes Township. The leading projects we are talking about here not only refer to the large scale, but more refer to the effect in industrial promotion and guidance. Let's imagine that if a project is only large-scale planting, although the scale is large, it has no radiation driving effect on the extension of the industrial chain, and it is not the object of our attention. The construction of leading projects is difficult to achieve simply relying on the development and growth of agricultural farmers, and must rely on the help of external forces.

In the case of the Great Lakes Township, the agricultural association played an important role in promoting and facilitating it. In the process of our rural revitalization, there is no lack of good creative planning, nor lack of policies, and what is really lacking is a leading project investment operator who understands the market, can operate, and has local feelings. The development of leading projects and the introduction of investment operators require the joint efforts of local governments, agricultural service organizations and social capital to build a community of interests and promote them with innovative business models.

Second, correctly understand the integrated development of primary, secondary and tertiary industries

The integration of primary, secondary and tertiary industries is a term that is often said in the agricultural field at present, and it is also one of the key directions supported by policies. However, the integration of primary, secondary and tertiary industries does not mean that each park and village must develop secondary or tertiary industries, but the overall integration in a certain area. The secondary production has stronger economies of scale than the primary production, and the agricultural products of several villages or townships may be fully supported by one factory. If each village or park develops secondary production, it will fall into a low level of processing, and the economic benefits will not be high, which goes against the original intention of integrating primary, secondary and tertiary industries.

This feature is also truly demonstrated in the case of the Great Lakes Township, where strawberry products are mainly processed at the Great Lakes Winery, and a small amount in the Chocolate Cloud Village. Of course, if it's just an experiential craft workshop, that's a different story. In terms of tertiary production, in addition to some light experience projects, agricultural product storage, transportation, brand marketing, cultural display, etc., all need to concentrate resources to do big things, rather than small troubles, especially under the condition of shortage of construction land indicators. Multiple villages in a township can achieve large-scale and intensive development through the concentration or replacement of construction land indicators, equity investment and cooperation, etc., and share the benefits of project development, rather than scattered village development.

3. Specialization and brand development

In the process of the development of the strawberry industry, Dahu Township has shaped the "first" in many aspects, but I think there are two points that have the best value for brand building: first, the strawberry planting area is the largest; The second is the first strawberry winery in Taiwan and even Asia. These two firsts not only established its position in the industry, but also established awareness in the minds of consumers. Although Great Lakes Winery produces many product lines, there is only one that stands out, and that is the strawberry cider range. This also reminds us that in the process of rural development, from the perspective of brand building, the product must be focused, focus on a type of leading products, seek the unique market selling point of this type of leading product, shape the brand, and the rest are green leaf foils, only in this way, can we better publicize in the market.

(End)

Pay attention to the Village Rally, more cases and thoughts on beautiful countryside, and look forward to sharing with you.

(Article source: Village Rally Editor: Yidu)

Rural Rally: Beijing Institute of Urban and Rural Strategy self-run media. Shouldering the mission of "cracking the confusion of rural revitalization, exploring the way of industrial integration, and shaping the beauty of rural countryside", it deeply cultivates the fields of rural industrial upgrading, beautiful rural construction, and integration of agriculture, culture and tourism, and disseminates new thinking, new concepts and new models of rural development in the world. Build a self-media information exchange platform, a smart innovation platform, and a rural industry stage that comprehensively empowers the sustainable development of rural areas, and publicity and promotion booths. Provide fast and effective knowledge transfer services for builders committed to rural development, and realize the beautiful vision of village-enterprise dependence, Jingtian and urban-rural integration.

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