昂貴的蘭花如何變得不值錢
WUSHU VILLAGE, Taiwan--A custard-ellow orchid dubbed P. Golden Emperor 'Sweet' changed hands between Taiwan breeders in 1978 for $100,000. Now, orchids roll out of greenhouses in Taiwan and onto the shelves of big-box retailers like Lowe's for as little as $5.48.
1978年，一株被稱爲“黃帝”(P. Golden Emperor 'Sweet')的奶黃色蘭花在臺灣種植者間的交易價格爲10萬美元。而今，由臺灣溫室大量培育的蘭花登上了Lowe's等大型零售商的貨架，售價低至5.48美元。As with flat-panel televisions and laptop computers, the once-rare orchid has become a mass-market commodity. Orchids now are the best-selling potted flower in the U.S., with annual sales exceeding the poinsettia, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
與平板電視和筆記本電腦一樣，曾經非常稀有的蘭花如今已經成爲一種大衆商品。美國農業部(U.S. Department of Agriculture)數據顯示，如今蘭花是美國最暢銷的盆花，年銷售額超過了一品紅。Behind the shift are the entrepreneurs of Taiwan, who have brought to orchid-breeding the energy and methods applied to making consumer electronics. Leanne Huang for The Wall Street Journal
圖片：珍稀蘭花的大衆化之路推動這一轉變的是臺灣企業家，他們把消費電子產品業界投入到生產中的那種精力和方法引入了蘭花種植業。
One result is familiar to many electronics makers: While global orchid sales are rising, profit margins are thinning.
有一個結果是許多電子產品生產商都不會感到意外的：隨着全球蘭花銷售額的上升，利潤率會收窄。'An orchid is no longer worth what it used to be,' said Wu Po-Hung, one of Tainan's largest orchid growers. 'We learned how to grow them too well.'臺灣最大的蘭花種植商之一吳波洪（音）表示：“蘭花沒有過去那麼值錢了。我們太瞭解怎麼種蘭花了。”
Greenhouses rise from the humid plains of southern Tainan County in clusters that bring together dozens of small growers. Each specializes in a specific stage of the production cycle--from germination to potting plants.在臺灣南部臺南縣溼潤的平原上，成片的溫室把數十個小種植戶聯合在了一起。每一位種植戶都專注於生產週期中的一個環節──有的專門催芽，有的專門裝盆。
Together they form an intricate orchid-production chain that can produce orchids to meet client specifications. Its efficiency resembles the assembly lines of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., the Taiwanese contractor that makes iPhones and other Apple Inc. products.他們共同組成了一個複雜的蘭花生產鏈，這個生產鏈能生產滿足客戶特殊需求的蘭花。其效率可與生產iPhone及蘋果公司(Apple Inc.)其他產品的鴻海精密工業股份有限公司(Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.)流水線媲美。
Overall, since the U.S. first permitted imports of Taiwanese potted orchids in 2004, the wholesale value of a large potted orchid in the U.S. has dropped around 30%, with inflation factored in, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Smaller orchid plants now wholesale for as little as 100 New Taiwan dollars ($3.33), said Mr. Wu.美國農業部數據顯示，總體而言，將通貨膨脹因素考慮在內，2004年美國首次允許進口臺灣盆栽蘭花以來，美國大盆栽蘭花的批發價已經下跌了30%左右。吳波洪說，較小的蘭花目前批發價低至新臺幣100元（合3.33美元）。
It is a reversal for Mr. Wu, whose family originally grew orchids on their rooftop as a hobby. His father turned it into a business after discovering he could make more money selling collectors the orchids on weekends than in his day job as an airplane mechanic.這對吳波洪而言是一大挫折。吳波洪家起初是在屋頂上栽種蘭花，把種蘭花當做業餘愛好。後來他父親發現週末向收藏者出售蘭花比他當飛機機械師掙到的錢還多，便開始做起了蘭花生意。
A market for rare orchids still exists. But that has been on decline since the mid-20th century when horticulturalists figured out how to clone orchids from tissue cells. Leanne Huang for The Wall Street Journal幾乎長成的植株會被出口到美國。珍奇蘭花市場依然存在。但這一市場自20世紀中期園藝學家發現通過組織細胞無性繁殖蘭花的方法以來就一直在衰落。
For centuries prior, growing orchids was something of a mystery. Their dust-like seeds would sprout only if they landed on particular types of fungus. They grew best clinging to trees or rocks, instead of dirt, in the jungles of Southeast Asia and South America.在之前的幾個世紀裏，蘭花栽培一直籠罩着一層神祕色彩。蘭花的種子像粉塵一樣，只有落到特殊的真菌上才能發芽。在東南亞和南美的叢林裏，附着在樹上或岩石上（而不是生長在土中）的蘭花長得最好。
The ancient Greeks saw the orchid as the incarnation of a nymph's lustful son who had tried to rape a priestess. In Victorian Europe, orchid hunters hired by wealthy collectors sometimes killed each other in pursuit of new breeds--the subject of Susan Orlean's 1998 book on orchid history, 'The Orchid Thief.' Disliking its often ostentatious collectors, American author James Agee wrote in 1935 that the orchid was 'the Largest, the Loudest, the Most Expensive, the most supercharged with Eroticism, Glamor, Prestige.古希臘人將蘭花視爲一位仙女之子的化身，這個兒子是個好色之徒，試圖姦淫女祭司。在維多利亞時代的歐洲，富有的收藏家僱傭的蘭花搜尋者有時會爲尋找新品種而相互廝殺──這是蘇珊·奧林(Susan Orlean) 1998年講述蘭花歷史的書《蘭花竊賊》(The Orchid Thief)的主題。美國作家詹姆斯·阿吉(James Agee)不喜歡那些通常愛炫耀的收藏家，他於1935年寫道，蘭花是“最大、最招搖、最昂貴、最富色情味和誘惑力、氣派十足的花”。
The contemporary orchid-breeding business in Taiwan and its main rival, the Netherlands, centers on the Phalaenopsis, or the moth orchid. Native to Taiwan, it is popular with overseas customers for its full petals in pink, purple, white and yellow.臺灣當代蘭花種植業及其主要競爭對手荷蘭都以種植蝴蝶蘭爲主。蝴蝶蘭原產於臺灣，這種蘭花擁有粉色、紫色、白色和黃色大花瓣，很受海外顧客歡迎。
In the 1980s, a government-owned sugar company started growing orchids and found it more profitable than its core business. A decade ago, the Taiwan government plowed under huge swaths of unprofitable sugar cane to build greenhouses for orchids.二十世紀八十年代，臺灣一家政府所有的糖業公司開始種植蘭花，並且發現這比其核心業務利潤更高。10年前，臺灣政府剷除了大片無利可圖的甘蔗田，以建立溫室種植蘭花。
Following the tech industry model, the small growers grouped together into production chains.小型種植戶開始效仿科技行業模式，他們聯合起來，結成了生產鏈。
Some growers focus on new breeds, coaxing cloned orchid cells into tiny green curls floating in glass flasks. Others then raise the slow-growing seedlings, packing them with dry moss into flexible plastic pots.一些種植戶專注於育種，他們小心翼翼地將無性繁殖的蘭花細胞加工成極小的綠色螺旋狀物，這些螺旋狀物浮在玻璃燒瓶內。之後，另一些種植戶會培育生長緩慢的幼苗，把它們和乾薹蘚一起裝入有彈性的塑料花盆裏。
The seedlings go through three growth stages of 4 to 6 months each, usually under the care of different growers, and are repacked each time into successively larger pots. Then they are shipped overseas. At a greenhouse in the U.S., a shock of cold jolts the plants into flowering. Then they go to the most profitable stage: end-user sales.Leanne Huang for The Wall Street Journal 美國農業部(US Department of Agriculture)數據顯示，如今蘭花是美國最暢銷的盆花，年銷售額超過了一品紅。這些幼苗要經歷三個生長階段，每個階段持續四到六個月，通常由不同的種植者照料，每次都會被重新裝入大一些的花盆內。之後這些花會被輸往海外。在美國的溫室內，低溫刺激能促使蘭花開花。隨後它們進入利潤最高的階段：終端用戶銷售。
The process has allowed Taiwan to become the world's largest producer of orchids by shipment number (the Netherlands is actually the largest producer by revenue) while capturing only a fraction of the profits. It is a ceiling Taiwanese companies have hit repeatedly: from laptop computers to power wheelchairs and golf club heads.這一流程使臺灣成爲全球發貨量最大的蘭花生產商（實際上以收入計算，荷蘭是全球最大的生產商），但只能獲得一小部分利潤。這是臺灣企業反覆觸及的天花板：從筆記本電腦到電輪椅再到高爾夫球杆杆頭都是如此。
After building its economy on small-scale, low-margin manufacturers and efficient supply chains that revolutionized global pricing for a host of manufactured products, Taiwan has seen most of the profits flow elsewhere. Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou and other politicians have called repeatedly for 'structural reform' to solve the predicament, but have yet to produce solutions.臺灣將經濟建立在規模小、利潤率低的生產和高效供應鏈之上，以這種模式生產的一系列產品改變了全球定價格局，也導致利潤大多流向了世界其他地區。臺灣總統馬英九和其他政治家多次呼籲通過“結構性改革”來解決這一困局，但迄今尚未找到解決方案。
'Taiwan's orchid growers can't do much except keep trying to cut costs lower to stay ahead,' said Ting-Fang Hsieh, director of Taiwan's government-run Floriculture Research Center.臺灣政府運營的花卉研究中心(Floriculture Research Center)主任謝廷芳表示：“臺灣的蘭花種植商要保持領先只能不斷努力削減成本，除此之外他們也無能爲力。”
Taiwanese growers bemoan that they ship more orchids than the Netherlands, but the Dutch manage to make more money off orchids. A major Dutch competitor, Floricultura BV, has built its own greenhouses in the U.S., which means it can control the more lucrative sales to retailers.臺灣種植者抱怨稱，他們的蘭花發貨量比荷蘭大，但荷蘭從蘭花種植中獲得了更多利潤。荷蘭一家主要競爭對手Floricultura BV在美國建立了自己的溫室，這就意味着該公司能夠控制面向零售商的銷售這一利潤更高的環節。
Though Taiwan has some industrial-scale production, most of the business is dominated by small family-run shops that focus on a single step. That, to some, is sapping profitability.儘管臺灣的蘭花種植有一些達到了工業生產規模，但該行業主要是由專注於單一環節的小型家庭作坊一統天下。一些人認爲這種模式會削弱盈利能力。
While generally it takes one to two years to grow an orchid, 'most Taiwanese orchid growers keep the plants for only a six-month segment,' said Mr. Wu, the Wushu Village grower. The strategy, he says, limits investment risk but also means Taiwanese growers don't control sales overseas.烏樹村(Wushu Village)的種植商吳波洪說，栽培蘭花一般需要一到兩年，但臺灣多數蘭花種植者只栽培六個月的時間。他說，這一策略抑制了投資風險，但也意味着臺灣種植者無法控制海外銷售。
Some growers are experimenting. Nadison Hsu, the 43-year-old chairman of Taiwan's largest orchid-growing collective and an ex-government official who favors pink and green Hawaiian shirts, said the industry needs to consolidate and innovate to succeed.一些種植商正在進行試驗。43歲的許能舜是臺灣最大的蘭花種植集團公司董事長，也是一位前政府官員，他喜歡粉色和綠色的夏威夷衫，他說，蘭花種植業要靠整合和創新來取得成功。
His company, Taiwan Orchid Professionals, began selling a brand of orchid-infused beauty products in Asia. It is also selling gold-coated orchids as a gimmick to build the brand. The company became the first horticultural company to list on Taiwan's over-the-counter Gre Tai Securities Market this year, a precursor step to listing on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.他麾下的臺灣蘭業股份有限公司(Taiwan Orchid Professionals)開始在亞洲銷售一個加入蘭花成分的美容產品品牌。該公司還出售包金蘭花，作爲品牌建設的噱頭。該公司今年成爲首家在臺灣場外交易平臺──證券櫃檯買賣中心(Gre Tai Securities Market)──上市的園藝公司，這是在臺灣證交所上市的前奏。
Showing off a large orchid plant with seven spotless white blooms cascading down a central stem, Mr. Hsu pointed to the four pairs of leathery green leaves, which show that the plant had taken four years to reach that size.許能舜向筆者展示了一株大蘭花，七朵潔白無瑕的花朵環繞着主幹款款垂下。許能舜指着四對堅韌的葉子，這些葉子表明這株蘭花長這麼大用了四年時間。
'How much do you think we can sell this for?' he says. 'Just 250 New Taiwan dollars'--$8.30.他說：“你猜猜我們能賣多少錢？只能賣到新臺幣250元。”──也就是8.30美元。
