To resolve the recent imbalance between production and marketing of Taiwanese bananas, the Council of Agriculture (COA) is seeking more help from the Chinese market. Between January and April, however, China purchased less than 2 tonnes of bananas. It bought 21.5 tonnes last year and none in 2008.
This stands in contrast with Japan’s steady, long-term purchases of Taiwanese bananas. It purchased 8,255 tonnes in 2008, 7,983 tonnes last year, and almost 2,994 tonnes between January and April this year.
Since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in 2008, his government has tried to sell Taiwanese fruit to China. Critics, however, say China doesn’t buy anything unless it will benefit Beijing’s propaganda efforts, calling such purchases China “abnormal trading.”
PHOTO: YOU MING-CHIN, TAIPEI TIMES
Farmers have also expressed concern that while the government makes every effort to target the Chinese market, it ignores the Japanese market.
Statistics show that in 2007, Taiwan exported more than 17,200 tonnes of bananas to Japan, while the volume fell by half in the past two years.
Taiwanese farmers usually see Japan as a high-price market. Taiwanese bananas sold in China go for half what they would bring in Japan.
The Agriculture and Food Agency said the cost, insurance and freight (CIF) price of Taiwanese bananas to Japan was NT$61.9 per kilogram last week, while the CIF price of bananas to China was NT$27.6. Farmers, however, say the agency subsidizes exports to China through the Taiwan Provincial Fruit Marketing Cooperative and the Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Co, which buys the bananas from farmers for NT$15 per kilogram.
Pingtung County farmer Sun Kuo-liang (孫國樑) said the purchase price was not always NT$15, as some businesspeople buy his bananas for NT$7 per kilogram.
Pingting County Councilor Lee Ching-sheng (李清聖) said he was told by a banana farmer late last month that the wholesale price of Pingtung bananas had plummeted to NT$6 per kilo, a price so low that farmers cannot even harvest them for sale because it is cheaper to cut them down for pig feed.
Critics say it is impractical for the Chinese government to purchase large amounts of bananas from Taiwan since Hainan Province is also a major producer of bananas, so any purchases that Beijing makes are mostly symbolic.
Wu Ming-ming (吳明敏), an honorary professor at National Chung Hsing University, said when there was a glut of Taiwanese oranges at the beginning of this year, China announced it would buy Taiwanese oranges. However, the quantities were much lower than expected, while the price was also much lower than average price on the Taiwanese market.
Any Chinese purchases of bananas might be a repetition, he said.
When tariffs and the value-added tax are added onto administrative and marketing expenses, a reasonable price for a farmer selling bananas is more than NT$40 per kilo, he said. However, farmers are selling their crop for half that price now, so without any government subsidies, the farmers may not turn a profit.
Chen Shih-hsiung (陳世雄), chairman of the Association of Taiwan Organic Agriculture Promotion, said China’s fruit purchases have been superficial, adding that the Ma government should focus its efforts on the Japanese and European markets.
Unfortunately, the government is placing all its hopes on China, as it moves to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China, he said.
Taiwan is losing its international competitiveness because of the government’s reliance on China, he said.
Agriculture and Food Agency Secretary-General Hsu Han-ching (許漢卿) defended the small scale of Chinese purchases of Taiwanese bananas, saying the lack of sales channels and relatively high prices meant exports were not a high as expected.
The drop in exports to Japan was the result of higher prices caused by typhoons cutting into production in the past two years.
Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄) has been criticized for making too many overseas trips at a time when the nation’s farmers are hurting.
Chen has traveled abroad four times in the past five months. He accompanied Ma on overseas visits in January and March, visited Holland in April and went to the Dominican Republic earlier this month as Ma’s special envoy to a Haiti aid summit.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Pan Meng-an (潘孟安) said Chen’s priorities were out of line and he remained oblivious to the plight of Taiwanese farmers.
National Dong Hwa University professor Shih Cheng-feng (施正鋒) said that just because agricultural affairs do not involve death or injuries does not mean Chen should make frequent overseas trips.
Farmers’ movement activist Yang Ju-men (楊儒門) also questioned Chen’s frequent absences.
Chen’s office director Ge Chao-jia (葛兆佳) defended the trips, saying that Chen had made three of the four at the request of the president, while the trip to Holland was at the invitation of the Dutch agricultural department.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is
RSS