Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/09/22
By: Yang Shu-min and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Sept. 22 (CNA) Some 500 tea growers around Taiwan have had their products authenticated through a cloud-based traceability system for domestic tea, which allows consumers to trace the source of the tea they buy, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said Tuesday.

The system was completed in 2014 and the COA started in January to invite the participation of tea farmers, according to Tsai Hsien-tzung (蔡憲宗), a section chief at the COA’s Tea Research and Extension Station.

It includes over 1,000 records of 150 metric tons of tea shipments. The COA aims to include 2,000 farmers in the system by the end of this year and to have at least 50 percent of the nation’s 12,000 tea farmers included in the system by the end of 2017, Tsai said.

If tea farmers have their products recorded in the system, they are required to make the production procedures transparent, to ensure the quality and safety of their products, according to Tsai.     [FULL  STORY]