2012 Fall Newsletter
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The APGA FALL 2012 newsletter N E W S Taipei Florist Wholesale Market Alaska hat kind of business were you doing while you were in Tai- Peonies W wan?” the American Immigration officer politely asked us. Make it to I answered “We have just exported the first ever shipment of Alas- kan peonies to Asia. They were samples for our prospective buyers Taiwan! of next year’s harvest.” He looked at me as if not quite understand- ing me and then said, “You mean Pee-in-ees?” After being correct- ed so many times I am finally learning not to pronounce the “O” which seems more natural to me. As we flew out of Seattle and set- tled in for the last leg home, I began to think back to what had initi- ated our venture adventure. My wife, Hui Ping, has been talking about this flower for years. Es- pecially in the summer and whenever we travelled around, this flow- er has always been of great interest to her. Whether it was at the UAF Gardens or visiting farms down through Palmer, she would al- ways want to stop and inquire about peonies and photograph them. I suppose I should have anticipated this interest of hers, I know a lot about the culture from where she came, but sometimes like blue- Rain, rain Rain, go away . Come some again other day. ALASKA PEONY GROWERS ASSOCIATION, INC. www.alaskapeonies.org P a g e 1 The APGA FALL 2012 newsletter N E W S berries in the tundra, you can walk right through something im- Export portant and not even notice. My wife is a rather new American, im- Venture migrating to America in 2005 from Taiwan, and she is fascinated Adventure with so many things she discovers in her new country that she had never encountered. I had felt the same way about Taiwan when I (cont’d) arrived in 1987. I first met her in the early 1990s when I worked in Tou Liu, a city in central Taiwan where I was licensed by Taiwan’s Ministry of Education to teach English as a second language. I was there when the last of the Chiang Kai-shek’s dynasty passed and marshal law ended, when the only TVs available were government sets with only channel buttons number one, two and three: straight out of an Orwellian 1984 nightmare. I was there when the govern- ment legalized opposition political parties and when the first presi- dent from an opposition party was elected. What I am trying to say is I thought I knew a lot about Asia and certainly about Taiwan, so how is it then that I did not notice the image of peony all around me for the years I lived in Taiwan? And as far as not connecting my wife’s Asian culture with her constant mentioning of this flower, well, I just attributed it to a normal pastime interest like her quilting, equivalent to my wanderlust of expensive tools in Lowes or Home Depot that I would someday like to acquire. This spring, like every other, my wife began talking about Alaskan peonies. But this year was going to be different, she told me that she decided to act on her dream to have the first trade company to import Alaskan peonies to Asia, and that she had been contemplat- ing this for years. Unknown to me, she had been working on this idea with her friends and acquaintances who were back in Taiwan for some time and she had already planned to initiate a shipment when the time was right. She had a good idea of how to introduce the flower to the right people if she could get them through Taiwan Cus- toms. But that could be tricky to do since it is a new agricultural product produced in a state that Taiwan imports only a few items from, with the exception of perhaps of fish, timber, and AK Seed Po- tatoes. She wasn’t sure how to get started from this end, who to buy the peonies from, what U.S. regulations might apply, and so on; so we contacted the Alaska Small Business Development Center in Anchorage. International Business Advisor, Ryan Gilbert, told us that he was giving a talk on the export trade to China the next day at an international trade conference in Fairbanks. He invited us to ALASKA PEONY GROWERS ASSOCIATION, INC. www.alaskapeonies.org P a g e 2 The APGA FALL 2012 newsletter N E W S attend. Export Venture At the conference we all introduced ourselves and our businesses. Adventure Seated directly in front of us was a very nice lady who introduced herself as Carolyn Chapin of Polar Peonies LLC. She explained that (cont’d) she was responsible for their marketing and she expressed interest in exporting peonies to Asia. In return, I explained that “we are Nah Zu Trade Company and we very interested in exporting and promoting Alaska products to Taiwan, especially peonies”. Well, providence had smiled on us and the lyrics from the theme song “The Brady Bunch” suddenly came to mind. We began to plan for getting a pilot export shipment of Alaskan Peonies through Taiwan Customs. Our goal was to discover how the flowers would tolerate transportation, handling, and the tropical environment of Taiwan; what the Taiwan peony market segmentation was; how well the Alaskan Peony would be received; and if Taiwan would be a good conduit for this product to other Pacific Rim nations. The date for delivery closed in and we went to Taiwan to prepare the way and meet our prospective clients. In less than a month Hui Ping and the network of her Taiwanese friends had met with the President of the Taiwan Florists Transworld Delivery Association, the Director and staff of the Taiwan Floriculture Development Association, the execu- tives of exclusive hotels and florist shops, and had gained their trust and genuine interest in importing the Alaskan Peony. Getting an American shipping forwarder was not as easy as we had hoped. They were reluctant to take our small export shipment but thankfully I had given them the contact information of our supplier Polar Peonies LLC, and Carolyn was able to help them understand the potential of 500,000 stems by 2016 and that would be just the beginning. When they heard this they were on board. As Hui Ping anxiously waited for the flowers’ arrival in Taipei, we worried because this was the first time Alaska peonies would be ex- amined by the key players in this market. We tried to get the US Agriculture Department to declare that a plant pathogen was not found on our peonies because the Taiwanese Government was very concerned about this disease. Although Alaska is too cold for this particular germ, Taiwan still wanted the phytosanitary certificate to list it as not found on the peonies. However, federal regulations ALASKA PEONY GROWERS ASSOCIATION, INC. www.alaskapeonies.org P a g e 3 The APGA FALL 2012 newsletter N E W S tied the hands of the Export Alaskan inspector. He Venture is not allowed to list Adventure something as not on a plant unless the foreign (cont’d) government formally requests in writing for it to be listed. This re- sulted in additional de- lays as the box of peo- nies now required extra inspections as well as fumigation. Then even Our ten released test stems blossomed out more disappointing, the beautifully! forwarder forgot to in- clude the packing slip, so our shipment was now to be held over a weekend because the Taiwanese agriculture inspectors and fumiga- tion close on weekends. When Hui Ping was finally allowed in the secured area, she located the storage area and was able to convince a customs inspector to release ten peony “test” stems after the officer gave them a careful visual inspection. A large part of our mission was to see how the Alaska peony would react to a normal transit time with normal handling, what we got was more of a stress test. However the ten released samples were immediately placed in what would be an average Taiwan household environment and they blossomed out quite nicely and lasted just un- der a week. The other Alaska peonies that were held over the weekend and went through fumigation also did quite well in spite of the unexpected time exposed to tropical heat, extra handling and delay. After Taiwan Customs released the peony box to Hui Ping on Monday, she took it directly to the Taiwan Florists Transworld Deliv- ery Association headquarters where she opened and inspected the box with the president and staff. The good news is that the damage or spoil loss was within an acceptable range. Our pilot test taught us what needs to be done to make the Alaska peony an export success in Asia, and we have untied the red tape ALASKA PEONY GROWERS ASSOCIATION, INC. www.alaskapeonies.org P a g e 4 The APGA FALL 2012 newsletter N E W S Export and cleared the way for future exports. We learned what must be done to gain lucrative purchases and win our Asian customers’ confi- Venture dence. When we returned to Alaska we had more productive meet- Adventure ings with Carolyn who has some great ideas for improving harvesting (cont’d) methods. This will take time, but if we all cooperate and strive to make improvements, I believe that there can be great potential for earnings growth in the years ahead. We hope to meet with many of you in the future and learn more from you and answer any questions you might have about Taiwan and what the customers there are like.