Sugar mills often start operation during winter period each year, and it’s also the time when Taiwan Sugar Corporation (TSC) holds its annual “Sugar Cultural Festival.” What makes the 2019 festival special is that TSC planned out a series of activities directly on the sugarcane farms, such as planting sugarcanes, observing the sugarcane harvesting process, and sugarcane smoldering in mud kilns, to let participants experience traditional lifestyles of sugarcane farmers. On Jan. 5, ShanHua sugar factory will be open to public for visiting sugar manufacturing processes and manually harvesting white carrots fertilized by organic bagasse.
“The only two operating sugar mills in Taiwan, HuWei and ShanHua factories, started producing sugar in Dec. 2019,” TSC said. “In order to let people better understand cultural history of sugar, we hold a kiln firing party today on the ZengWen sugarcane farm nearby the ShanHua factory. 400 people flocked to the farm for taking a closer look at the sugarcane mechanical harvesting with spectacular views of birds flying, hand-planted sugarcane seedlings, and let sugarcanes smolder in mud kilns. Through these activities people can experience the lifestyles of sugarcane farmers in old days and it is also an edutainment way of passing down cultural heritage of sugar industry.
According to TSC, ShanHua sugar factory started operation in 1905 and it’s been over 114 years. On Jan. 5, ShanHua factory will open for limited visitors to watch sugar manufacturing processes, from sugarcanes to sugar products. The visitors can also see how the bagasse and molasses are turned into organic fertilizers then further applied to grow organic vegetables. The visitors can enjoy in manually harvesting carrots and bring them home to cook. There are TSC stalls and the image gallery open to public as well. Welcome to “2019 Sugar Cultural Festival” and spend a wonderful holiday in ShanHua, Tainan.
TSC News Contact Person:
Yeh, Ching-Wen
Tainan Operation Branch, TSC
Contact Number: 886-6-581-9731 ext. 340
