Alishan smallholder Chen Yuannong, who has won the Gold Medal for Oolong Tea, is suspected of working with Weijia International Business Manager Chen Zhongxiuhui to pass off low-priced Chinese tea seeds as Taiwanese. In order to win the trust of Yongfeng Yu Biotechnology, he even took customers to visit the Alishan tea garden and falsely claimed that Chen was the owner of the tea plantation. The Taipei District Prosecutor's Office found that the sales of camellia oil involved amounted to more than 17.78 million yuan. Now it has prosecuted two people for fraud, false labeling and other crimes, and recommended that they be given harsher sentences.
The lawsuit points out that Chen Zhongxiuhui is the manager of Weijia's business department and is fully responsible for the production of camellia oil, the procurement of camellia seeds, and the research and development of "Gaoyang San Kucha Oil"; Chen Yuanong is the raw material supplier of Weijia's camellia seeds. In order to reduce costs, Ms. Chen has been purchasing tea oil made from Chinese tea seeds from oil factories since 2023, or commissioning the oil to be made from Chinese seeds, and then bottling it and selling it with labels such as 100% Taiwanese native tea seeds and origin of Taiwan.
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Starting in 2025, Chen Yuannong purchased a total of 10,884 kilograms of Chinese camellia seeds from oil factories and cooperatives, and sold them to Weijia at an average of 190 yuan per kilogram. After Chen mixed other Chinese seeds to make oil, she continued to sell them as "Gaoyang San Kucamelli Oil", with sales of more than 13.62 million yuan.
The investigation also found that when Weijia worked for Tingmao Agricultural Biotechnology, Tingmao originally requested to use tea seeds produced in Taiwan, but Chen concealed the actual use of Chinese seeds from Weijia's business, causing the business to mistakenly tell Tingmao that the raw materials came from Alishan, Chiayi. Therefore, Tingmao commissioned the production of 750 bottles of "NICE GREEN Premium Tea Oil" and paid more than 370,000 yuan. What he actually received was a product made from Chinese tea seeds.
Investigation and investigation revealed that in order to win the trust of Yongfeng Yu Biotechnology, Chen Zhongxiuhui and Chen Yuannong took the other party's personnel to Laiji Village in Alishan to visit the tea tree garden in November 2024, and falsely claimed that Chen Nan was the owner of the tea garden, leading the other party to mistakenly believe that Weijia could obtain sufficient quantities of Taiwanese Camellia Camellia seeds. They ordered a total of 10,000 bottles of "Local Camellia Camellia Oil". In fact, the oil was still made from Chinese seeds, with sales reaching more than 3.79 million yuan.
It wasn't until July this year that Yongfeng Yu independently tested "Local Golden Flower Camellia Oil" and found that benzene and pyrene exceeded the standard, and proactively reported it to the Food and Drug Administration, and then followed the lead to uncover the origin fraud. Subsequent investigation by the competent authorities revealed that the same batch of raw materials also involved Weijia's "Gaoyang San Ku Tea Oil" and Ting Mao Ku Tea Oil, and many batches of products were removed from the shelves.
According to prosecutors' statistics, Weijia earned 17,789,207 yuan from selling camellia oil involved in the case, and Chen Yuannong received 2,067,960 yuan from supplying Chinese camellia seeds. They both requested the court to declare confiscation. They also accused the two of concealing the origin, earning price differences, and damaging consumers' trust in food safety and quality. They recommended a harsher sentence. The person in charge of Weijia and two other product department managers did not prosecute because they did not know the source of camellia seeds.
