About 200 farmers from the south protested yesterday against a 70 percent increase in fertilizer prices, demanding government subsidies to help them offset rising costs.
The protesters, mostly from Pingtung and Tainan counties, held up fertilizer bags emblazoned with slogans such as “Fertilizer Prices Rise, Farmers Die.”
Last month, the government lifted a three-year freeze on fertilizer prices, allowing suppliers to factor in their rising costs amid soaring global raw material prices.
The protesters said the move encouraged widespread hoarding, leading to a severe fertilizer shortage.
The new administration under President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has also lifted freezes on fuel and electricity prices, setting off a wave of price hikes for everything from food to household supplies.
“Our new leader has promised us a better life, but we see nothing but hardships ahead,” said protester Lan Yi-yuan, a vegetable and fruit grower in Pingtung County.
Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄) promised the farmers that the government would stop further hikes in fertilizer prices for at least four months as an anti-hoarding measure. He did not comment on the farmers’ demand for subsidies.
The government has said it would strive to keep inflation at 3.3 percent this year — up from a 2 percent forecast in February — by cutting commodity taxes and offering other subsidies.
In related news, the Bureau of Investigation under the Ministry of Justice yesterday arrested Chiu Hsin-hsing (邱信行), a specialist at a branch of the state-run Taiwan Fertilizer Co (台肥) in central Taiwan, for illegally storing 560 tonnes of fertilizer in Yunlin County.
Investigators from the bureau’s Chiayi County branch — along with police from Minsyong Precinct of the Chiayi County Police Bureau and officials from Yunlin County Government — yesterday found 15,400 bags of fertilizer in Douliou City (斗六), Yunlin County, allegedly hoarded by Chiu. Each bag weighed about 40kg.
Chiu is suspected of purchasing the 15,400 bags from the company in the name of a dummy fertilizer store that he had set up in Douliou City, investigators said. He then hoarded the bags, waiting to profit from the price hikes.
Chiu’s action resulted in a shortage of fertilizer in central Taiwan last month, police said, adding that as fertilizer prices had already risen from NT$350 to NT$510 per bag, Chiu could have made more than NT$2.5 million (US$82,450) profits from his stock of fertilizer.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS