Drought Cuts Entries to Lugu's 50th Dong Ding Competition by 16 Percent
A dry January left some Lugu tea gardens near total loss, and entries to the township's landmark 50th-anniversary Dong Ding Oolong competition fell from 4,401 to 3,714.
Lugu Township's spring Dong Ding Oolong competition, marking its 50th year, drew 3,714 entries this season, down 687 from the 4,401 submitted last spring, the Lugu Township Farmers' Association said, as drought cut into the harvest that feeds it.
Nantou County government said January's rain fell short of 20 millimeters over 30 straight days, meeting the Ministry of Agriculture's published threshold for a tea-drought disaster designation. County government planning chief Qiu Shaowei said Lugu has more than 1,200 hectares under cultivation. Legislator You Hao called it Nantou's third-largest tea township by area, saying it normally produces over 1,035 metric tons (about 1,140 US tons) of Dong Ding Oolong a year, worth more than NT$1.6 billion (about US$50 million).
Nantou County officials said spring output fell 40 to 60 percent or more across the township, with some plots reporting near-total loss. Buds that should have pushed out in the dry season simply did not, thinning the pool of leaf a farmer would normally hold back to enter.
Even short-handed, the association pressed ahead with a 50th-anniversary exhibition, planned for June 6 with a "Grateful for Fifty Years" promotion drawing extra visitor traffic to the township.
A one-season dip in entries does not touch the fifty years of judged lots the competition has already put on record. But a dry January that keeps buds from pushing is the plainest way a cup changes before it is ever picked: less leaf offered, and a thinner field for the judges to choose from.
Sources: China Times, 乾旱減產 鹿谷春茶賽報名縮水; United Daily News, 連續乾旱擊垮茶葉生長 南投春茶恐減半衝擊16億產值農民叫苦; ETtoday, 鹿谷鄉春季凍頂烏龍茶2大獎同日登場 特等獎、特等茶王出爐.