Archival find of the day: in 1977 Taiwan sent an expert on fruit and vegetable juice processing to Saudi Arabia to evaluate the feasibility of establishing a prickly pear (仙人掌果, aka barshomi, Opuntia ficus-indica) juice processing plant as a new industry. 1/4

The expert's report included tests on juice production processing, seasonality, and water quality. Tests included sampling juice produced from different stages of ripeness, trace minerals and pH levels in the local water, and chemical additives. 2/4

As was typical for Taiwanese ag development projects, the Taiwan component included setting up a test process in Taiwan. Most interesting is that prickly pear is not native to Taiwan, but Taiwan officials set up plans to source it from Penghu, where it does grow in the wild. 3/4

Saudi officials decided against the new processing plant in the end, citing that its questionable profitability, but I found it nonetheless an interesting project proposal in terms of co-opting technology & ecology in the context of a larger Cold War diplomatic strategy. /end