Though Taiwan has had some success in turning the island's great variety of flora and fauna into commercial products, experts say it has a long way to go before it emerges as a biotechnology powerhouse.
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Algae and fish scales are turned into skin-care products. Herbs are made into health foods. Evergreen trees are cultivated to make anticancer drugs.
Though Taiwan has had some success in turning the island's great variety of flora and fauna into commercial products, experts say it has a long way to go before it emerges as a biotechnology powerhouse. With limited government support for research and a poor record of cashing in on laboratory breakthroughs, it is still struggling to create a name for itself in an increasingly competitive field, they say.
"Agriculture is a treasure that has yet to be properly explored," said Lee Jen-chyuan, vice minister of the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture. "It's ... an area where we can be competitive in the world, unlike medical and pharmaceutical fields that are dominated by multinational companies."
In Asia, Taiwan's agricultural biotech research is competing with countries like Singapore, though the city-state is burdened with relatively small parcels of land for producing raw materials. Both China and India have also placed great emphasis on the technology, but most of their efforts have been applied to improving crop output.
Taiwanese officials hope that biotech may one day join information technology as a prime engine of the island's economy, but there are a number of hurdles that must be overcome.
Biologist Ho Tuan-hua, who returned to the island three years ago to lead the national agriculture biotech development program after 30 years of related research in the U.S., blames the Taiwan government for imposing excessively stringent safety standards in approving the marketing of products developed through biotech research.
For instance, Ho said, Taiwanese scientists have long grown genetically modified rice that can be used for animal feeding and drugs, but cannot promote the high-priced grain on a commercial scale because the government has yet to sanction genetically modified products.
The result, he says, is that companies are shunning genetically modified foods to focus on less controversial products, such as making drugs from herbs native to Taiwan -- for example, using the orchid variety dendrobium as eyesight-boosting supplements and applying bupleurum root for the treatment of liver disease.
"There's an undue anxiety, an apprehension of new technologies related to genetic engineering," he said.
Ho also says Taiwan could fall behind regional rivals like Singapore unless it improves its international marketing and its management skills.
Agricultural innovation has long been a specialty on this leaf-shaped island of 23 million people 100 miles off the coast of China. Taiwan has prided itself on its bountiful rice harvests and its state-of-the-art breeding of high-yield seedlings for export to tropical and semitropical countries.
One area of research that's beginning to make an impact is the production of the anticancer drug Taxol, which is derived from the yew tree.
At a well ordered greenhouse in Taipei, Ho Cheng-kuen, a silviculture specialist of the Forestry Research Institute, culls a young, 6-inch Taiwan yew tree for its needle-shaped leaves and twigs.
"China, India and several other countries are cultivating yews in similar ways," Ho said. "We hope we can grow them faster and be more competitive in our prices."
A few Taiwanese companies are growing the yews in the hope they can extract the anticancer substances. They would then be sold to U.S. firms which hold the Taxol patents, he said.
Ho also leads a project to grow genetically modified eucalyptus trees that yield more pulp at significantly reduced costs -- a potential boon for the paper making industry. The task is sanctioned because it is for industrial use, not for food.
Cosmetics is another hot field.
Biologist Sung Ping-jyun leads a small research team at the state-funded National Museum of Marine Biology to use marine organisms for skin-care products featuring wrinkle-free and anti-infection properties.
"Marine life contains substances that help the organisms retain water and resist ultraviolet rays in the salty water," he said. "These can be applied to human beings."
Sung's team recently transferred to a number of private firms technologies developed from algae and corals nurtured in water tanks.
Many other laboratory results have been applied to food, seeding and other traditional industries to turn out new, higher value-added products, said Julie Sun of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research.
Pending legislative approval, the Cabinet recently proposed to set up an institute to coordinate all agricultural research and fund the marketing of the most commercially viable products, Lee of the Council of Agriculture said.
"All people in the world need food, nutrients and cosmetics, and they can all come from agriculture," he said.
Source: Associated Press
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