Exclusive: Uni-President and Xiyuan wheat achieve a major breakthrough, opening a new chapter

Lead image / Uni-President Enterprises flour mill, Xiyuan Bakery & Cafe, and local wheat farmers joining hands to promote local wheat.

Through the matchmaking of Shi Ming-huang, the "general manager" of Xiyuan Bakery & Cafe, Jing Hu-shi, general manager of Uni-President Enterprises, the flour mill with the highest market share in Taiwan, China, met yesterday (September 27) for the first time with farmers contract-farming Taiwan wheat for Xiyuan, promising to assist with the milling and processing, flour storage and transport, and sales of local wheat, cooperating with farmers in a way that fulfills corporate social responsibility to restore the sustainable development of Taiwan's wheat industry.

This cooperation could be described as the first-ever unprecedented collaboration between Taiwan's largest flour mill and the world's smallest wheat farmers by average cultivated area. According to data provided by Uni-President Enterprises, in 2009 Uni-President flour held a domestic market share of 20.4%, ranking first. The farmers contract-farming Xiyuan wheat cultivate areas ranging from a few fen of land to several hectares, which compared with large foreign farms of tens of thousands of hectares makes them tiny shrimp.

But small farmers united can still draw attention for their efforts. Uni-President Enterprises' assistance marks the first time since Shi Ming-huang launched the "Wheat Field Rhapsody" project in 2007, contract-farming with small farmers around the country and exploring how to restore Taiwan wheat cultivation, that a large flour industry player has responded by investing in the processing and sales of Taiwan wheat, greatly helping to improve the problems Xiyuan wheat previously faced with wheat milling, quality analysis and sales channels.

Jing Hu-shi, general manager of Uni-President Enterprises, stressed that although Taiwan's wheat output is very small and cultivation is not easy, considering raising the food self-sufficiency rate and supporting local agriculture, even if the factory must modify production equipment to handle local wheat processing, Uni-President Enterprises is willing to invest regardless of cost.

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