Ke Ya wins the global citrus marmalade competition with Taiwan kumquat, and a remote British town glows because of citrus

In March of this year, Ke Ya, founder of Good Food Time, won the annual Double Gold Grand Prize at The World’s Original Marmalade Awards, hailed as the "Oscars of the jam world," attracting international attention. The small town of Penrith in the UK, which hosts this world-famous competition, was originally an obscure and remote town, but because it holds an annual citrus carnival, it attracts contestants and travelers from around the world, not only driving local economic growth, but even making young people willing to stay in the area.

Does Taiwan also have a chance to go global with its advantage of abundant produce? "Taiwan absolutely can!" Ke Ya said without hesitation. Taiwan's fruits are richly diverse; for a single jar of citrus marmalade, Taiwan can use a blend of ten different flavors of citrus, such as Murcott mandarin, kumquat, and Pingtung lemon. By contrast, Europe has only a few kinds of citrus, and the flavors of those few are not very different from one another. "Taiwan's citrus flavors are spectacular, and that is our starting point."

Ke Ya believes that the most important thing for Taiwan right now is to first change the mindset of wanting to see results in the short term. "We need to first properly diagnose the system. What exactly are our terroir and our advantages? Only after reviewing them can we plan further." Once the development of Taiwan jam is set as the direction, the focus should shift toward cultivating fruit varieties specifically for processing, and to move toward organic jam, the problem of the excessively high cost of pesticide-free organic fruit must also be overcome. "We need to diagnose the problems in every link, so that Taiwan can move toward refined processing."

"Entering my tenth year of making jam, I am certain I will make jam for the rest of my life." Ke Ya said firmly that she wants to establish a discourse for Taiwan jam and lead Taiwanese brands onto the international stage. She wrote on Facebook: "I regard jam creation as a hymn to the island, constantly exploring the various possibilities of fruit. These brilliant and splendid Taiwanese fruits are undoubtedly an important reason that keeps me going." Good Food Time has produced nearly forty kinds of jam, precisely to seal within the jam the sweetness of the four seasons' harvests and the abundance of local produce.