| Summary |
Yi-Ju Yang, 2008.06
Department of Transportation Technology and Management National Chiao Tung University
The MPS in Holland was founded in 1993, mainly to act against the competition brought by Africa’s low cost flowers. The MPS certification process involved the conversion of Credence Goods into Search Goods, which made Holland regain its competitiveness in the flower market. Today, MPS is considered to be the best known international certification label in the global flower market. Until March 2008, there are more than 4000 MPS members in 42 countries. About 70% of the flowers in Holland’s auction market are MPS certified. MPS certification therefore plays an important role for the flower industry to compete in the European and worldwide market.
Flowers are one of the most potential products in Taiwan’s agriculture. Without MPS certification, it is estimated that Taiwan flowers for sales abroad will lose nearly more than ten million dollars annually. However most of Taiwanese flower growers and retailers are still not aware of MPS. This research is thus focused on the study of how to introduce MPS to the flower industry in Taiwan.
In this research, we first analyzed the supply chain structure of the flower industry in Taiwan, and studied different MPS approaches of various countries. We then propose that the combination of Japanese and Chinese approaches may provide a good framework to set up an MPS system in Taiwan. First, it is suggested that our government should play the leading role to engage with MPS Foundation in Holland as the Chinese government did in 2006. Second, after first engagement by the government, we propose to follow the Japanese approach. Representatives of the flower industry, instead of the government, are responsible to negotiate with MPS Foundation to set up a formal organization which will be in charge of the MPS certification in Taiwan, i.e. the future MPS Taiwan. Our study would help the Taiwanese flower industry to regain its competitiveness in the international market. The proposed MPS introduction procedure in our paper also provides a good framework to set up a national flower certification system in Taiwan, which will effectively protect our domestic flower market from low-cost competition from countries such as China and Thailand in the near future. |
