Alishan Drought Cuts Tea Output 30 to 40 Percent as 2026 Competition Crowns Winners

A spring drought delayed Taiwan's Alishan high-mountain tea harvest by up to ten days and cut output 30% to 40%, officials said as the region's growers association crowned this year's competition winners.

The Alishan Township Farmers' Association graded 418 entries in its 2026 Spring High-Altitude Premium Tea Competition, split between 347 lots of Qingxin Oolong and 71 of Jin Xuan, the two cultivars grown across Alishan's terraced highland gardens in Chiayi County. Results were announced May 27, and the association held an awards ceremony and public tea sale June 13 at the Alishan National Scenic Area Administration plaza. This is the farmers' association's competition, one of two the district runs each spring; a separate cooperative-run contest judges a different field the same season.

Qiu Shifu, a grower with Gaodiyuan Tea Industry, took the Qingxin Oolong group's special award, the competition's top prize, with a lot that sold for NT$80,000 (about US$2,500) per catty (600 grams). Wang Hongcheng of Wangding Tea Garden won the Jin Xuan group's champion award, priced at NT$12,000 (about US$370) per catty. Judges scored entries the way this Order weighs its own parameters: appearance, liquor color, aroma, taste, each read in turn, none standing in for the whole.

Qiu Chuifeng, deputy director of Taiwan's Tea and Beverage Research Station and one of the competition's judges, said low rainfall before the Qingming festival in early April hit Jin Xuan harder than Qingxin Oolong, pushing back the ideal picking window by about seven to ten days. Rain returned around the Guyu solar term in late April, letting growers harvest within season and partly recover lost volume, he said, but the region's overall output still fell an average of 30% to 40%. A picking window pushed back ten days is not a footnote to this Order; it is a parameter, and this year's cup carries it.

The association said it ran DNA-based origin testing and random pesticide-residue sampling on this year's entries, with Chiayi County's government and the Agriculture and Food Agency's southern branch confirming all sampled batches were pesticide-compliant, Taiwan-grown tea before the results were announced.

Chiayi County Magistrate Weng Zhang-liang said the Greater Alishan region's tea quality owes as much to farmers' fieldwork and craft as to its terrain and climate, and that this year's award-winning lots held to that standard despite the drought.

Sources: 自由時報 (Liberty Times), 阿里山春季高海拔優良茶競賽成績揭曉 6月13日頒獎展售 (zh-Hant); 蕃新聞 (yam News), 阿里山農會「2026阿里山春季高海拔優良茶競賽頒獎暨展售會」 (zh-Hant).