FamilyMart procures 6 tonnes of red quinoa from Pingtung for processing, hoping to boost green agriculture in indigenous communities
On the 16th, FamilyMart announced a collaboration with the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau of the Council of Agriculture; "Rural Good Things" will be listed on an e-commerce platform. Among these, the convenience store chain procured nearly 6 tonnes of red quinoa from farmers in the Dawu tribe of Wutai Township and Majia Township in Pingtung to make processed products such as rice balls and cold noodles, hoping to thereby drive community industry development. Sales will begin in stores across Taiwan, China on May 22.
The Soil and Water Conservation Bureau of the Council of Agriculture has been promoting the "Rural Regeneration Program" for 9 years now, allowing many communities to develop anew and attracting many young people to return to their hometowns to take up farming. The Soil and Water Conservation Bureau also helps match distribution channels to sell these specialty agricultural products.
Chen Tien-shou, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Agriculture, said that Typhoon Morakot forced many people to leave their hometowns. In addition to assisting with hardware construction to prevent disasters from happening again, the government's more important task is to assist with industrial recovery, including restoring old crops, developing new agricultural products and developing rural eco-tourism, so that through industry young people can return home and rural areas can develop sustainably. Lin Chang-li, Deputy Director-General of the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau, said that after building a solid industrial foundation, the next step is to find distribution channels. They found the convenience store chain, which procured nearly 6 tonnes of red quinoa from tribes including Wutai Township and Majia Township in Pingtung County, revitalising community industries.
Huang Cheng-tien, Director of the Fresh Food Department at FamilyMart, said that FamilyMart has always worked closely with the Council of Agriculture. They procured from the Dounan Township Farmers' Association and made rice balls from locally produced Koshihikari rice; sales can exceed 5,000 per day, also driving overall convenience store performance growth of 10 to 20 percent. This time, with the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau's matchmaking, they took Taiwan red quinoa grown by local farmers as the subject of development, successfully developing fresh food, and procured from Wutai Township and Majia Township in Pingtung to make products such as red quinoa rice balls and cold noodles, with sales expected to begin in stores across Taiwan, China from May 22.
Corporate procurement shapes the development of rural areas. Tsai Ching-te, Marketing Manager of the Dounan Township Farmers' Association in Yunlin County, said that FamilyMart began cooperating with the farmers' association 2 years ago, buying Koshihikari rice to make rice balls for sale, which also drove local contract farming area from 200 hectares 2 years ago to 500 hectares this year, stabilising farmers' income. Ke Hai-yen, Chairperson of the Dawu tribal council, also hopes that, with some young people having returned home in recent years, procurement by distributors and higher income will bring more young people back to invest in industry development.
