Rush planting of lemons causes price drop, citrus greening spreads, may follow in the footsteps of oranges

Three or four decades ago, the hilly areas of Taiwan were once full of liu ding (citrus) trees, filling every pit and valley. At the best prices, one jin could fetch 30 yuan, and the rush to plant swept all the way through Yunlin, Nantou and Chiayi. But the good times lasted less than a few years. Because production soared, the price fell to 5 or 6 yuan - not even enough to cover the picking wages - so the only option was to let the liu ding hang on the trees or fall to the ground and rot.

At the same time, the citrus terminal disease "huanglongbing" (citrus greening disease) rose along with it. Infected liu ding trees first had yellowing, shrunken branches and leaves, then declining yields, a sharp increase in fruit drop, and plant death.

Huanglongbing did not deliberately pick a good time to make things worse. "Huanglongbing has existed for a long time; it is just that farmers cannot even recover their costs, let alone invest in pesticides and fertilizer." said Zhou Huangjun, director of the Meishan Farm in Chiayi, which went through the liu ding collapse. Liu ding without good management has insufficient resistance, so it naturally breaks out more easily.

Because farmers lacked the strength to cut down the liu ding trees that had become sources of the pathogen, the disease continued to spread outward. To stabilize prices and also prevent the continued spread of pests and diseases, the Council of Agriculture allocated a budget in the hundreds of millions, subsidizing up to 200,000 yuan per hectare, to guide farmers in abandoning orchards and switching crops.

This history is a painful memory for Taiwan's agricultural authorities and farmers, but the subject of this news story is not liu ding. It is another industry that is following in liu ding's footsteps - lemon.

Hand-shaken drinks explode in popularity, lemon becomes Pingtung's green gold

This year Pingtung lemon prices plummeted, with the farm-gate price per jin falling to single digits. Farmers simply gave up harvesting and let the lemons rot as fertilizer, a sharp contrast with last year's good times of 100 yuan per jin.

In 2007, the well-known hand-shaken drink shop "Qingyu Humanities Tea Drink" launched "Jade Lemon Tea," advertised as using Taiwan lemons, pioneering on-site juicing of whole lemons, paired with a "golden ratio" of sweetness and ice. For a time it was popular in streets and alleys across Taiwan.

Qingyu started in Taichung. In 2013 it opened franchising in the north and south, and stores expanded rapidly, indirectly driving lemon prices. From 2010 to 2014, Taiwan's lemon cultivation area increased by 461 hectares, and production increased by 18,415 metric tons. Calculating at 100 grams per lemon, the increase over these five years could make more than 180 million cups of Jade Lemon Tea.

Pingtung lemons account for 85% of Taiwan's area, and it is also the main production area purchased by Qingyu. Huang Dechang, director of the Kaohsiung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station, said that over the past five years, the lemon area in Kaohsiung and Pingtung increased by about 5 to 600 hectares. Pingtung farmer Huang Yuchen said that in recent years lemon seedlings have been in extremely high demand, soaring from 120 yuan per plant to 180 yuan.

As early as last year, many farmers worried that overplanting of lemons would cause a collapse. It takes about 3 to 5 years from planting lemons to stable harvest. In August 2013, Qingyu was reported by the media for being too sweet, and buying sentiment fell by more than 50%, but the lemons had already been planted. Sure enough, overplanting plus reduced market demand, with exports also blocked, created today's grim situation.