Jin-hu Leisure Farm Area is operated by Jin-hu Leisure Farm Development Association which was built in 2008. The Association originally ran the business in an idle workhouse of a food factory and operated difficulty for 6 years, recalled by the Operation Manager Yun-shan Cai. In 2016, the township mayor encouraged them to take over Kouhu Visitor Center, an empty place that had been abandoned for 2 years, for the business. Yun-shan Cai and her partners started by sweeping the toilets gradually transformed the Visitor Center and run the business for another 6 years.

The Catering Gained Reputation, The Visitor Center be Popular

The Association now base on Kouhu Visitor Center. The center is integrated with the wetland ecological park and improved the surrounding environment and traffic flow by the National Scenic Management Office. The landscape won the “Yuan-Ye Award” in 2018.

In addition to providing traveling advice, the Visitor Center provides cozy seats for visitors to enjoy a cup of hand-made coffee, a flavored meal, even have a relaxing shower. They can buy mullet roe, rice noodles, Kabayaki eels, and golden kimchi as souvenirs. The Visitor Center gradually became a famous and well-known center to travelers these years.

“We treated those drivers free cup of coffee in the first two to three months.” Ms. Cai recalled. When it hasn’t launched any business in begin, there already had heavy motorcycle or bicycle drivers came for coffee and resting in the Visitor Center. Ms. Cai bought coffee beans from relatives and her husband learned hand-made coffee hardly to serve those drivers for free. There was a visiting driver who was hunger, Ms. Cai cooked seafood noodles for him right away and received a very well compliment. The driver shared the “Mom’s style noodle” drawing on his Facebook and was suddenly famed in the drivers’ connections. The unexpected dish caused us to start a catering business.

Created “Bittersweet Man” Brand with Local Smallholders

Starting from a bow of noodle, Ms. Cai and partners keep launching meal sets or light meals which made by local agriculture and fishery products such as eels, fresh shrimps, milkfish maw. They also take pre-ordered buffet or group catering. Now, those dishes are the signature of Kouhu Visitor Center. Since 2017, the Visitor Center opened a small shop market with up to 25 smallholders and certified Halal Certificate for Muslim meals and venues in 2018.

In 2020, the center even launched a self-brand named “Bittersweet Man” which includes food, beverage, and afternoon tea. The product line integrates more than ten towns of Yulin County products and designed four styles of Gift Boxes in Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. In Mid-Autumn Festival 2020, the Association sold 4,000 Wheat Gift Boxes for “Light Mall” online shop and 1,600 Red Quinoa Souvenirs for “Liang Sin Protect Farm”. The Association earned NT$3.85 million by selling catering and agriculture products which takes 44% of the total revenue. During the 2021 COVID-19 pandemic, the Association accelerates the E-marketing program to keep farmers’ income.

Promote Green Agritourism and Upgrade Local Industries

In the past, the Association focused on upgrading farmers’ Agri-techniques, promoting, and marking the agriproducts but exhausted in communication. Now, it adopts a strategic Green Agritourism Marketing to influence producers through consumers. For example, only provides safe and eco-friendly products to visitors during the Agri-tours. Therefore, the farmers will be more motivated to improve farming technique and quality. The Association encourages farmers to produce fine agriproducts and join the secondary processing market to reduce the impact of natural disasters on their harvest. At the same time, it also assists smallholders to obtain a Halal Certificate to broaden business opportunities.

The recommended trips are designed with seasonal specialties and food ecological trips by linking more than ten Yunlin’s townships, farming, and fishing departments. The various trips such as visiting oyster racks, mullet roes processing, Horseshoe Clam Leisure Park, and rose tomato garden, etc.

The Association launched the education course on food and agriculture for kids in 2013. The course is not only baking sweet potatoes or catching clams but also collaborates with Asia University to allow children to plant seeds, buy and wash vegetables, then cook as a dish, which teaches the children food production process and life skills.

Link Township Resources and Create a Golden Village

With the opening of Provincial Highway 61 and online word-of-mouth, the visitors to the Visitor Center have grown from hundreds to 3,000 to 4,000, even over 10,000 in a month. When the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, “The Agricultural Voucher launched by the Council of Agriculture was a great help to the southern tourism!”, Ms. Cai emphasized. The revenue from the theme rural experience accounted for 27% of the total revenue, the annual revenue even reached a new peak this year.

Another income of the Association comes from Cross-Regional Counseling Program for the Leisure Agriculture Area in Yunlin County. Ms. Cai planed the trip with seasonal products, religious sites, ecology, and fishing grounds of Yunlin-Chiayi coastal line and integrated cultural and craft experience in it. She also invited several performing groups such as the Women’s Association TAIKO and the local orchestra for the trip quality. The trip pushed the youth, elderly, women, and children to participate and revitalized the entire region.

The program trip not only made Jinhu won the National Leisure Farm Area Excellence Award from the Council of Agriculture but also made Kouhu Township listed in Taiwan Top 100 Classic Small Town by the Tourism Bureau.

In addition to Agritourism, the Association supports Accessible Tourism and hosted 3 promotional free events in 2020. With the increase of influence, the Association becomes a matching platform where enterprises look for social welfare targets. For example, it helped companies and World Vision Taiwan contacted with Early Intervention Management Centers, Academic Counselling Centers, or Elementary School Baseball Teams to meet the needs.

Leverage Government Resources and Introduce Young Generations for Innovation

Before the Association moved into Kouhu Visitor Center, it depended on Multi-Employment Promotion Program (MEPP) and Empowering Employment Program (EEP) for 3 years each to accumulate operation capacity and experience, recalled by Ms. Cai. We have 3 partners who obtained Level C Culinary Certificate by the Vocational Training and made the catering operation foundation. After 2016, the Association started self-operation by running Kouhu Visitor Center. Our employees are mostly middle-and-old aged workers, so we support them with extra groups and health insurance for better care.

“I feel so lucky to have been trained by the MEPP Vocational Trainings so I can keep growing.” As a prior trainee, Ms. Cai knew the value of MEPP deeply, so she always encourages partners to use the training resources. The Association now steps to the innovation stage and needs more young forces. In early 2021, the Association hired 8 new employees by the Ministry of Labor’s Program, which includes 4 young people by EEP. Through empowering and retention, Ms. Cai hopes those young employees could have the willing stay in their hometown.

Ken Matsumoto, the president of Farmers Forest Japan, visited Taiwan and suggested that the locals must establish three values in Buying, Traveling, and Living. First, to create agriculture specialties and local food, then create a tourist brand showing local charming, and finally establish an ideal lifestyle which touches the visitors’ heart by local hospitality. The concepts match what Ms. Cai believes. With the belief and was awarded The Best Project Manager of the MEPP Golden Sun Rising Award, Ms. Cai keeps leading partners to the next step.

 ▲Business Model

▲The Association created “Bittersweet Man” Self-brand with local Smallholders for agriculture products and catering.

▲Kouhu Visitor Center Community Small Shops Market develops a new market channel for smallholders.

▲The Installation Art in front of the Visitor Center had awarded A’Design Bronze Medal from Italy.

▲Through online word-of-mouth, there have 3,000 to 4,000 visitors to Kouhu Visitor Center every day. (Picture Provide: Jin-hu Leisure Farms Development Association)

Case story: Multi-Employment Promotion and Empowering Employment Program

Interviewee: Jin-hu Leisure Farms Development Association

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. 

Please attribute this article to “Workforce Development Agency, Ministry of Labor.”