Tainan will be hosting the world’s three largest orchid exhibitions in the coming two years: the 23rd World Orchid Conference (WOC) and the 20th Taiwan International Orchid Show in 2024, and the 15th Asia Pacific Orchid Conference (APOC) in 2025. To show that the city is dedicated to hosting the next edition, Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che attended this year’s event in Singapore and was invited to speak at the closing ceremony. Huang took the opportunity to officially announce that Tainan will make every effort to prepare for the event and ensure visitors from all over the world can fully experience the beauty of Tainan. Mayor Huang also visited the Taiwan exhibition area specially set up by the Taiwan Orchid Growers Association as well as observed the layout planning of the exhibition hall and booths at the APOC in detail to serve as a reference for the coming international orchid events in Tainan.
Mayor Huang Wei-che gave his closing remarks in English. Expressing that Taiwan is known as the Kingdom of Orchids, Huang pointed out that one out of every three orchids in the world comes from Taiwan. Owing to its excellent local climate and advanced breeding and cultivation technologies, Tainan is known internationally for producing high-quality orchids of a wide variety. In fact, Tainan’s orchid production accounts for half of Taiwan’s total orchid exports.
The Mayor went on to mention that the rich experience of hosting the 8th Asia Pacific Orchid Conference in 2004 as well as the Taiwan International Orchid Show every year since 2005 helped Tainan successfully win the hosting rights for next year’s World Orchid Conference. This event, along with the Taiwan International Orchid Show, is expected to attract worldwide orchid professionals to Tainan to experience Tainan’s rich orchid culture presented in diverse forms between February 25 and March 10. It will also be the perfect opportunity to showcase Taiwan’s orchid industry to the world. The Mayor stated that the valuable experience accrued from hosting the two major world-class orchid events next year will definitely benefit the preparations for and the execution of the coming Asia Pacific Orchid Conference in 2025.
Huang also shared that 2024 will be the year of Tainan 400, and thus invited the professionals who will come for the orchid conference and exhibitions to also enjoy the light installations at the Taiwan Lantern Festival and experience the local history, culture, food, and natural sceneries of Tainan.
The Asia Pacific Orchid Conference (APOC) is held every three years (originally scheduled to be held in 2022 but postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic). It is the most famous orchid international event in the Asia-Pacific region and is one of the world’s three largest orchid exhibitions (the other two being the World Orchid Conference and Taiwan International Orchid Show). This is Singapore’s first time hosting the APOC, which attracts around 20-30 participating countries every event. More than 60 local and overseas companies participated in the exhibition and over 100 orchid varieties were shown. Hosting the APOC next year is very meaningful to Tainan as the city welcomes the event once again after 21 years (the last time Tainan hosted the event was in 2004).