Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/491368
80 STiR tea & coffee industry international brands of canned instant coffee and tea exported to the United States after testing showed that the products were contaminated with melamine. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration alerted consumers about the voluntary recall. Ever since that scare, Mr. Brown has been sourcing its milk from New Zealand. "The issue was that our supplier in mainland China was put- ting melamine in its nondairy creamer and exporting it to Tai- wan. We recalled everything and destroyed it all," she said. "This was a bad issue for us, but we were honest in telling people about it." Even so, China – with its 1.4 billion consumers and rapidly growing middle class – offers an enormous opportunity for Mr. Brown and its Taiwanese rivals. In fact, mainland China now ranks as Taiwan's largest trad- ing partner, accounting for 28% of total trade and 39% of total exports. In second place is the 10-nation ASEAN bloc (As- sociation of Southeast Asian Nations), followed by Japan, the 28-member European Union, and the United States. Things have definitely changed since May 20, 2008, when Ma Ying-jeou took over Taiwan's presidency from his predecessor, Chen Shui-bian, who was openly hostile to Beijing. Within three months of taking office, Ma launched direct weekend charter flights between the People's Republic and Taiwan, opened the island to mainland Chinese tourists and eased restrictions on Taiwanese investment in mainland China. As a result, last year 2.8 million Chinese citizens visited Tai- wan on tourist visas, cramming such popular tourist attractions as the Taipei 101 skyscraper and Taipei's National Palace Mu- seum. Likewise, 5.3 million Taiwanese visited China in 2013 — up from two million in 2007. That year, there were no flights at all linking the two Chinas; now, 858 scheduled flights cross the Straits of Taiwan each week. A direct flight from Taipei to Shanghai now takes only 90 minutes, compared to the six or seven hours a passenger would have spent flying that route via Hong Kong just a few years ago. Wu said that while the Chinese market is indeed lucrative, she's rather focus on coffee sales to consumers than retail shops. "I wouldn't like to expand the shops too much because this takes lots of manpower," she explained. "Also, the Chinese market is difficult. Maybe in big cities like Beijing or Shanghai, they know coffee, but in most of China, the coffee market is not really mature. Rather, I want to supply more convenient coffee for them, such as RTD espresso, or individual drinks like our three-in-one, which contains coffee, sugar, and creamer. We can create different flavorings, and you can take these anywhere, and when you're traveling, just add water." Mr. Brown has eight branch offices in the mainland – in- cluding Beijing, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and Shanghai – as well as in New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere. "Business is business," Wu said. "The [mainland] Chinese want to protect their industries, but right now they need our food industry. In Taiwan, the food industry is safer and more creative, and our technology is more mature. In the last two years, so many Chinese government people have visited us to see our factories, and know what we are doing. They want to learn how to control everything." Larry Luxner is news editor of The Washington Diplomat. He traveled to Taiwan in June as a guest of that country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. JAPAN East China Sea Taipei Shanghai Fukuoka Gwangju Hong Kong Taiwan South Korea CHINA