TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Major hand-shaken beverage brands and tea industry figures have voiced opposition to a proposed incinerator in Nantou County’s Mingjian Township, warning it could harm one of Taiwan’s most important tea-producing areas.
Fourth-generation tea farmer and Tea Top Chair Yang Kuo-chen (楊國珍) said Mingjian produces about six tonnes of tea annually, accounting for roughly 60% of the tea used by Taiwan’s hand-shaken beverage industry, per ETtoday. He questioned the site selection, saying the government has yet to clearly explain why the township was chosen.
Yang said Mingjian tea is competitively priced and prized for its distinctive Taiwanese aroma, adding that its output cannot be easily replaced by imported Vietnamese tea. He urged the county government to reconsider the project.
Agriculture Minister Chen Junne-jih (陳駿季) said the proposed site is designated agricultural land, meaning the county government must apply for a land-use change. He said the ministry would closely review any application to ensure the protection of high-quality farmland.
Cabinet Spokesperson Li Hui-chih (李慧芝) said any transfer of state-owned land to local governments must follow established procedures, per CNA. She said the central government would reject the transfer request if the incinerator project fails to comply with relevant regulations.
TPP Legislator Chen Chao-tzu (陳昭姿) said at a Thursday press conference that the county government had already contracted road-widening work for access routes before the incinerator’s environmental impact assessment was completed, per Storm Media. She questioned how the project passed the first stage of the EIA process when the relevant supervising agencies had formally transferred neither the land nor the access roads.
Responding to site selection concerns, Nantou County Environmental Protection Bureau Director-General Li Yi-shu (李易書) said Monday that two other potential locations in Caotun and Gukeng were deemed unsuitable due to uneven terrain or the need for garbage trucks to pass through school zones, per PTS.
National Chung Hsing University Assistant Professor Chen Chien-te (陳建德) said that while governments can spend money to level land or reroute traffic, they cannot “spend their way out of food safety concerns.”
The Environmental Protection Bureau said Tuesday that the county government had commissioned National Taiwan University Professor Sun Yen-chang (孫岩章) to study the impact of incinerator emissions and that preliminary findings showed no significant effect on crop appearance or quality, per UDN.
Nantou County Magistrate Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) said her administration’s responsibility is to ensure the county can manage its own waste, per China Times. She added that Nantou is the only municipality in Taiwan without its own incinerator.
