Make Taiwan sake famous all over the world, Yiquan fragrant rice is sold all over Taiwan, and Wufeng Peasant Association wants to sell Taiwan's agricultural products to the whole world.

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"I will do these things because I love Wufeng and love Taiwan more." Huang Jingjian, director-general of the Wufeng Peasants' Association with a cordial smile, said very firmly that this is his 25th year of work in the Wufeng Peasants' Association and 19 years as the Director-General. In addition to making Wufeng fragrant rice famous throughout the country, he has won global awards in brewing Chuwu sake, and has set up the Wufeng Transformation Alliance with local allies. In recent years, the guard has been extended to the whole Taiwan.

"in addition to Wufeng's agricultural products, it is also necessary to sell Taiwan's agricultural products." Huang Jingjian said that foreign customers have a demand for gifts, so they simply put together the specialty products of agricultural and fishery associations in Taiwan for foreign customers to choose from. "Taiwan is not big, and the whole country can be regarded as local agricultural products. To sell more is to help one more farmer."

Huang Jingjian, Director General of Wufeng Peasant Association (Photography _ Lin Yijun), three generations of Master of political Science in the United States, returned to his hometown to work at the grass-roots level of the peasant association.

"speaking of peasant associations, do you think I'm a gangster?" Speaking of the general stereotype of peasant associations, Huang Ching-chien describes himself as three generations of politics: his grandfather was chairman of the villagers' representative association, and his father, Huang Chih-chih, was a member of Taichung County and speaker, and he was also elected a member of Taiwan Province.

Although it is the third generation of politics, the Huang family has been in agriculture since the time of his great-grandfather. His great-grandfather sold bananas for export, his grandfather grew bananas and pineapples, opened a rice shop in the vegetable market, and his father grew mushrooms. Huang Jingjian's family background also brought Huang Jingjian into contact with agricultural affairs since childhood. After earning a master's degree in business administration from Seattle University in the United States, he returned to Taiwan to work as a cashier at the lowest level of the Wufeng Peasant Association. At that time, in 1995, he was 28 years old.

"I didn't think too much at first, but I just knew not to embarrass my father and grandfather." Huang Jingjian was frank that he did not know the peasant association at the beginning. In order to be familiar with the grass-roots level, he often went to the countryside to "warm up" with farmers, attended various temples, weddings, funerals, and other activities, and gradually became one with the people around him. He served as head of the credit department and promotion unit, and then took over as director-general in 2001. Since his debut, he has been in the Wufeng Peasant Association.

Huang Jingjian went to the countryside to negotiate with farmers to understand the front-line problems and farmers' needs (photo source: Ke Yixiong): "No amount of subsidies will increase farmers' income." Insured purchase to promote the benefit of whole fragrant rice

A year before Huang took office, under the guidance of Dr. Kuo Yiquan of the Taiwan Agricultural Research Center in Wufeng, Tainong 71, also a famous "Yiquan fragrant rice," was bred, while less than a year after Huang took office, Taiwan joined the WTO. "at that time, everyone was worried that they would not be able to compete with the price of imported rice. I thought that if there were good varieties and prices, farmers could be protected."

"No amount of subsidies will increase the income of farmers." Huang Jingjian decided to promote the Yiquan fragrant rice cultivated locally and use the contract to protect the income of farmers. "on the other hand, farmers' associations can also ask for quality." As a result, the Wufeng Farmers' Association raised the price of dry grain from 20 yuan per kilogram to 28.5 yuan per kilogram year by year, and the contracted area also increased from 5 hectares at the beginning to 383 hectares now.

The contract has also gradually changed the farming habits of local farmers. "after the price is fixed, farmers will feel that the more they pay, the more income they will earn, but the fragrant rice should be delicious and the yield should not be too high," Huang said. " Through conducting competitions and farmers' exchanges, contractors will be directed from output to quality, for example, dry grain samples will be tested for "taste quality", and the score will reach the standard, and then the contract will be used as a price increase to encourage farmers.

The highly acclaimed Yiquan Xiangmi (photo source _ Ke Yixiong) "Dongchi Shangshang, Xiwufeng" thought about the transformation after winning the award.

In 2004, the Agriculture and Food Administration began to hold a national rice quality competition. Yiquan fragrant rice won awards for four consecutive years, and then won the top ten classic good rice in the country four times. "the first in the pool, and then we were. At that time, 'Dongchi, Xiwufeng' spread in the rice world. The most delicious rice in the west is Yiquan fragrant rice produced by Wufeng." The name of Wufeng fragrant rice spread, and the market of rice became stable.

In addition to stable contracts, Huang Jingjian and his colleagues have come into contact with the concept of organic and friendly land in recent years, believing that if they want to operate for a long time, they must leave healthy land for future generations and coordinate with farmers one after another. To replace pesticides, chemical fertilizers and herbicides with home-made compost such as withered grass and fallen leaves. "at present, 50 of the contracted areas are organic and friendly farming."

For the sake of the winery, employees must read comics, learn Japanese and go to Japan to learn how to make wine.

Although it has opened up the sales market of fragrant rice, Huang Jingjian believes that fragrant rice cannot always focus on fresh food, and that rice has other processing uses and must enter a stage that is difficult to copy, distinctive, and high value-added. He saw that all the rice producing areas in Japan, in addition to producing rice, there were many local sake, and the idea of "Wufeng winery" also began to brew.

"at that time, I was at a loss: 'you can still read comics when you come to work!'" Huang Ching-chien points to the books in the winery, one of which is the famous Japanese sake cartoon "Xiazi's Wine." he recalls that after the emergence of the idea of the winery, it coincided with the plan of the Council of Agriculture to guide the operation of peasant association enterprises, with which funds were used for personnel training.

Before the winery was officially completed in 2007, all the staff of the winery had to read the relevant books. "the Wine of Xiazi" and "Shenzhi" were also one of the textbooks. At that time, two employees were selected to study Japanese in Taiwan and then went to Niigata winery in Japan for training for three months. after that, other employees were sent to Japan to study, step by step on the road to wine-making.

Wufeng winery, the cabinet is full of wine-related cartoons (photography _ Lin Yijun) winemaker: Taiwan winery is more flexible and innovative.

"I didn't know the reasons for the operation steps before, but I didn't know it until I went to Japan." Li Zhengyu, who has worked in a winery since he was a college student and has now become a winemaker, says that when he works, he follows the instructions of the winery staff with one command and one action, but often doesn't know why. He didn't know the principle and key of making wine until he went to a Japanese winery to study.

"the person in charge of steaming rice will never get a haircut." Li Zheng proverb recalls that the Japanese winery has a strict structure, and everyone listens to "du Shi" (what the Japanese call the winemaker), starts work on time at eight o'clock every morning, and is responsible for every step of wine-making. At that time, because he had only three months of training, he learned a round all the way from washing buckets, washing rice and steaming rice to brewing hair paste.

"I can try whatever I want to do." Li Zheng's proverb states that the owners of Japanese wineries perform their own duties, but if you need to adjust the production process, it is also a big project, and everyone's habits must be changed, but in Taiwan wineries are more flexible, as long as pure rice sake is made to add fruit flavor. He also revealed that he has recently been studying the production of beer and is studying how to bring it into the current process.

Li Zhengyun, winemaker of Wufeng winery (photo _ Lin Yijun), eat good rice and make good wine. The fragrance of "first fog" is softer than that of Japanese sake.

Wufeng's wine brand is called "Chu Fog", which was originally named through a vote. It means successful production and the best quality in Wufeng. Unlike Japan, which is made with special rice, Wufeng Farmers' Association makes sake with Yiquan fragrant rice full of taro fragrance. It also makes the whole series of "Chu Fog" have more aroma, and the taste is much softer than Japanese sake.

Today's wineries and breweries used to be the Wanfeng barn of the Wufeng Peasant Association. Chen Yongbin, the current brewery director and a senior employee of the rice factory, asked the secret of making good wine. Chen Yongbin believes that the key lies in rice. "We use edible rice to make wine, not leftover rice." He explained that the state of the raw materials determines the flavor, and the quality of edible rice is strict, so the wine also has the corresponding quality.