Pig price hogwash
On March 11, the price of live pigs at auction reached NT$90 (US$2.79) per kilogram — the highest in the past 40 years. At about the same time, the US Grains Council and the Taiwan Feed Industry Association said that the supply and prices of animal feed had not fully recovered from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war between Russia and Ukraine.
They said that with animal feed prices remaining high, the high cost of raising pigs had lifted the price of pork, and this was likely to continue.
Overall, the cost of pork production cannot return to previous levels and will inevitably be reflected in prices.
However, to stabilize domestic pork prices, the Ministry of Agriculture instructed the National Animal Industry Foundation to use limited-time and limited-amount pork import incentives to quickly replenish Taiwan’s security stocks and provide imported pork for processing.
The foundation implemented import incentives from May to last month.
Importers received NT$6 per kilogram to help cover procurement, warehousing, management and marketing expenses to help maintain a stable auction price for live pigs in Taiwan, meet demand and set people’s minds at rest, it said.
Although the price of live pigs per kilogram has increased since April, the stabilization measures have kept domestic auction prices within the “green light zone” while ensuring reasonable profits for pig farmers.
Clearly, the policy has achieved the desired result.
However, at a news conference organized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus on Thursday last week, KMT Legislator Wu I-ding (吳怡玎) said that the foundation’s NT$6 per kilogram subsidy cost NT$300 million and no benefits have been seen.
The price of pork did not fluctuate during this period, while imports rose dramatically, Wu said.
A dictionary would say that the opposite of “fluctuation” is “stability.” So when Wu said that there has been no fluctuation in the price of pork during the period, surely it means that the price of pork in Taiwan was stable, which is exactly what was supposed to happen.
How can she claim that she has not seen any result?
Is there something wrong with her eyesight, or is she just talking hogwash?
Chueh Li
Taipei
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