On the Key Development Factors in Taiwan’s Organic Tea Industry

Tea is an important economic crop in Taiwan, and the development of tea industry in Taiwan has more than two hundred years. Oolong tea in 2004 was selected as one of the four export flagship products. In recent years, people pay more attentions to food safety and conservation, increase use of organic fertilizers, non-pesticide pest control, and organic farming methods. However, organic tea requires long-term operations to have positive revenue, and faces challenges diseases, pests, low yield per unit area, and the high cost of production from industry to differentiate from conventional tea products. Setting up inspection or certification system for organic tea products can increase the product value and profitability. In this study, we collect the basic information of the domestic tea industry, learn the various dimensions and various indicators from the inter-level feedbacks and analysis of the dependencies network process (Analytic Network Process of ANP), and find the key factors affecting the development of domestic organic tea industry.
In the hierarchical structure of division, this study has three levels. Level one is the purpose of the study. Level two contains five dimensions: “Production management of the organic tea”, “organic tea test”, “tea processing”, “tea cultivation techniques” and “marketing”. The results in level two, “organic tea garden production management” is the most important dimension. Under the production management of the organic tea dimension, “biological pest control technology” is the most important. Under the tea cultivation techniques dimension, “human technical” is the most important. Under the tea processing dimension, “tea factory health and safety management” is the most important. Under the organic tea test dimensions, “testing policy relevant laws and regulations” is the most important. Under the marketing dimensions, “characteristics and differentiation” is the most important. Increasing organic tea and conventional differentiation tea, can promote the organic.