Many Substitutes for Madou Pomelo: Smart Shopping Without Superstition About Origin and Old Trees
At Mid-Autumn Festival, when you eat mooncakes and have a barbecue, you always need a sweet-and-sour pomelo to complete the flavor, and when it comes to buying pomelo, the first place many people think of is Madou in Tainan. Madou pomelo is in short supply every year, and orders for old-tree pomelo for next year's Mid-Autumn Festival have to be placed right now. In fact, the largest pomelo-producing area in Taiwan, China is Hualien, and a distributor familiar with the industry points out that for Madou old-tree pomelo, "every year they cry shortage, and every year there is fruit to sell." Much of the Madou pomelo on the market is bought up by middlemen in Hualien, Yilan and Taitung, shipped to Madou and resold, and the price immediately doubles.
The Hualien farmers used as stand-ins for Madou pomelo have hardships they cannot voice. The Ruisui Farmers' Association, which covers the largest pomelo area in Taiwan, China, says helplessly that Hualien Hegang pomelo is in no way inferior to Madou pomelo in quality, yet it is grown for someone else's benefit. In recent years Hegang pomelo has built up some name recognition, but similar incidents still keep happening. Du Lihua, former director of the Agriculture Department of the Hualien County Government, believes that by strengthening brand marketing and segmenting the market, Hualien pomelo will absolutely have its own value.
Hualien Pomelo Dressed Up as Madou, Price Doubles
In the Coastal Mountain Range of Hualien, many pomelo trees have been cultivated for more than thirty years, and Du Lihua, former director of the Agriculture Department of Hualien County, is very optimistic about the prospects for Hualien pomelo (photo/Lin Huizhen)
(This article was funded by the Jianzhen Environmental Education Foundation for personnel costs, but the foundation does not interfere at all with news topic selection or interview writing, ensuring journalistic independence.)