Planting cross-Straits seeds of success

His annual fruit output generates more than 1.5 million yuan ($234,375), plus vegetables worth another 500,000 yuan. About one-third of his vegetables and fruits are sold abroad through foreign trade companies from Beijing and Shanghai.

In addition to his organic greenhouse, Chung and his wife, New Huei-ming, run a store in Longyan's downtown area, selling high-end vegetables and fruits and promoting their concepts for good health.

They also offer customers Taiwan cuisine to convey the idea that compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Straits are part of the same big family. New said Longyan residents are friendly and warmhearted.

"We have made many local like-minded friends who love organic food and health over the years," she said. "That is our biggest gain."

She followed her husband to Longyan a decade after he arrived in 2008. "We have a happy life," she said.

Chung said development opportunities on the mainland are much better than those in Taiwan, and the development of fine agriculture has great potential.

Born into a family of fruit growers in Taiwan's Pingtung county, Chung started planting and growing fruit at home since he was a child. He was the first farmer in Taiwan to grow durian, the fruit with the prickly husk and soft inner meat.

In his early days on the mainland, Chung ran a freight company in Dongguan, Guangdong province, and was attracted by the natural scenery and ecology. After careful consideration, he decided to invest in agriculture and grow varieties of vegetables and fruits from Taiwan in Longyan, which share Chinese culture, customs and language.