“Three Locals” in Yunlin, Total Solution from Production to Marketing

Tian, Xiao hua（China Productivity Center NantouYunlin Promotion Department Central Regional Office）

Many government policies on the food safety in Taiwan in recent years have led to positive development. The actual effect, however, is not always ideal due to the lack of coordination among the government agencies involved. Small and medium-scale enterprises account for more than 97% of the overall food industries in Taiwan, but enterprises capable of strictly abiding by the latest laws and regulations and implementing the new food safety measures are less than 3% of the large food enterprises. Product traceability, for example, is a task only medium- and large-scale enterprises can handle independently.

This year in Yunlin, a group of small and medium-scale food industry enterprises are facing changes such as the introduction of the "Five Musts" cloud platform of food safety regulations. To cope with the changes in regulations which lead to the increase of the production cost, with the assistance from the Small and Medium Enterprises Administration of MOEA, this group has reached a consensus for cooperation by abandoning the “going it alone” strategy, which has been proved to be of limited effect in the past five years, and starting joint management of the products so they can share the production resources and jointly demand higher quality of the materials procured. These efforts are to lower the threshold of food safety for the small- and medium-scale businesses and to create a better food safety environment in Taiwan. Effective food safety management is expected with the joint operation of upstream enterprises to launch a solid effort for marketing quality food products from Yunlin.

With the core value of "complementary resources, shared benefits, joint growth and success", the entrepreneurs of this group enjoy learning from and cooperating with each other to result in more business opportunities. With the support from the Small and Medium Enterprises Administration of MOEA, everyone in the group takes each other as partners with serious motivation and ideals. They all make substantial progress though close communication and self-reflections.

Based on the "Five Musts" cloud platform of food safety regulations, the group has developed the scenario of "local planting, local production, and local marketing" for the seven marketing themes of "firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and tea". The "Five Musts" platform, the consumer network application technology requirements, and the internal management of the enterprises are all taken into account to integrate the development of the enterprises and the government quality grading requirements for the enhancement of joint marketing to successfully promote the good products from Yunlin.

Among the seven marketing themes of "firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and tea", the theme of firewood is conveyed by the image of the wood puppet of Huwei Township, along with the wood puppet production, manipulation skills, sound and visual effects, and voice acting. The theme of rice is the famous rice produced in Xiluo Township, where the fertile land by Zhuoshui River nourishes the fragrance and springy texture of the rice that even the Japanese emperor was served the rice during the Japanese colonial period. "Oil" means the oil cold pressed from tea leaves suitable for all kinds of cooking. "Salt“ means adequate food processing and seasoning with legal food additives for the best flavor. "Sauce" means the naturally brewed black soybean sauce, with charming flavor, and the thick soy sauce with mellow taste is suitable for cooking and dipping! "Vinegar" is the plum vinegar, which is helpful in adjusting the Ph value in the body and enhancing physical strength and immunity. "Tea" is black bean oolong tea, with the effect of reducing edema, best brewed with hot water of 85°C.

Local planting, through the operations of production and marketing, enhances the operation mode, forms the basis of source management of planted and bred products, including the system of certification of origin and that of production and marketing traceability. Local production, through quality assurance, institutionalization, and standardization, including ISO 22000 food safety management certification, minimizes losses and wastes, and optimizes resource utilization and output. Local marketing is promoted through the “Yunlin Agricultural Product Exhibition”(雲林形象物產館), the social marketing channels, interactive experience marketing planning, e-commerce services, etc., to form a joint brand of good products for Yunlin, including platforms of QR Code online ordering and the “Five Musts” cloud.

Twelve enterprises in this group have joined the "Value Community of Good Products of Yunlin". Each member is devoted to the ideal with unreserved effort to seek breakthroughs in the depth and breadth of business operations. With the development vision of "Three ‘Locals’ in Yunlin: Total Solution from Production to Marketing", and the goals and strategies of development set on the basis, all the members work together for industrial development through integrated operation channels to organize the most suitable layout of channels, the timely incorporation of resources from the industry, government and academia, and the cooperation with the central and local authorities.

In addition to improvement of their respective operation performance due to coaching, the members also benefit from their joint technical research, the accelerated quality improvement, quick response to market changes, and provision of products that meet the needs of consumers. The consultation received from the service teams, the assistance received in applications for technology transfer and patents are conducive to the improvement of R&D technologies. Through the integration with the marketing channel, feedback of market information is accelerated to help integrate the strengths of the enterprises as complement to each other to achieve a general model of profitability for the whole group.

It is believed that the group of food producers will place priority on cooperation and group success over individual benefits so they all conduct marketing through the “Yunlin Agricultural Product Exhibition”. The On-line to Off-line (O2O) channels, including the online ones like the website of Yunlin Agricultural Product Exhibition, domestic online shopping platforms and Facebook fan groups, and offline ones like shops at the high-speed rail station, Yunlin Agricultural Product Exhibition, county farm exhibitions and tourist factories. The tour packages offered by well-developed tourist factories and ecology farms can be further developed into "one-day tour" and "two-day tour" packages, so that consumers in not only obtain new knowledge but also experience the “marketing of the five senses”. This will attract countless consumers for patronage, which can lead to substantial profits.

Despite the growing difficulties in industrial management, challenges in formulating and promoting many government policies, and the keen competition domestically and from overseas, the small and medium-scale enterprises are advised to enter into their "strategic alliance" to form an advantageous cluster with international competitiveness. In many successful industrial clusters in Taiwan, enterprises have developed friendship like brotherhood, so they encourage each other to foster the corporate culture of "sincerity", "dedication", and "conscience", and then complement each other in the stages of R&D, production, and sales, to come up with a successful model for profit through unity. Through the exercise of technologies, innovation, culture, knowledge, e-commerce, referrals, etc., SMEs in Taiwan can form a tight value chain with high added value, high knowledge-based economy to expand the global market.