China To Grow Blue Roses Using Israeli Technology

China will grow blue roses that were developed using an Israeli technology, following an agreement that was signed between the Israeli Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor (MOITAL) and the Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

In the Chinese folklore, blue rose symbolizes the victory of impossible love. According to a popular folktale, an emperor who wanted to marry his only daughter to a righteous man announced that whoever presents a blue rose would marry his daughter. The emperor’s daughter fell in love with a wandering poet after hearing his poetry beyond the palace walls. The anonymous poet defeated stronger and better known men, succeeded in finding the blue rose and married the emperor’s daughter.

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Even today, blue roses are considered luxurious in China, costing three times the price of red roses. The price of a single blue rose ranges between 50 to 200 Yuan (approximately $8-32). The price rises and culminates each year on Valentine’s Day.

Under the agreement, Israeli agricultural science and agro-technologies will be presented in a demonstration farm in the city of Fuzhou, the capital city of Fujian Province.

Presenting Israeli solutions to the local Industry

Besides the blue roses greenhouses, the demonstration center will exhibit fish farming, clean chicken coops, dairy farm equipment and advanced milking machinery – all of them Israeli technologies. The industrial park will display advanced agricultural technologies from Israel with an emphasis on sustainable, efficient and environmentally-friendly solutions.

The goal of the project is to expose local companies and decision-makers to foreign products and thereby promote them on the Chinese market.

The demonstration centers are founded by the Chinese agricultural research institute, which encourages companies and farmers to implement agricultural solutions. It is also a professional body that determines the quality standards of agricultural products for the end-consumer and the cooperation with it has great commercial value for the Israeli companies.

Under the agreement, the Chinese research institute is obligated to protect the copyrights of the Israeli companies and to avoid using competing technologies for five years. According to Avner Shochat, the representative of the Israeli companies who will take part in the project, “the collaboration between the agricultural research institute and the Israeli companies will be commercial and will include investors form the private sector in China, such as one of China’s largest supermarket chains.”

Photo by alowan