March 19, 2007

 

Taiwan to create monitor system for key farm products against price slides

 

 

Taiwan is implementing a price monitoring system to prevent overproduction or shortages in 17 types of agricultural products.

 

Taiwan's Council of Agriculture (COA) said the production information monitoring system would monitor 17 vegetables, fruits, livestock, and fishery products.

 

The COA would require farmers and fishermen to report projected output volumes on their planting and cultivation plans in advance.

 

If overproduction and price slides take place, the government would purchase the surplus from those who have filed reports at a rate of 95 percent of the average production costs for the past five years.

 

Suppliers who fail to report would receive only 65 percent of the average production costs from the government.

 

COA Chairman Su Chia-chyuan said yesterday the new system is designed to closely monitor the production volumes of products vulnerable to sharp price swings.

 

The mechanism would serve to reduce the financial risks faced by farmers and fishermen, Su said.

 

The livestock products category would cover pigs, indigenous chickens, meat chickens, and chicken eggs. The six items in the fishery products category, include basses, eels, milkfish, mouth breeders, and clams.

 

Su said the system would encourage farmers, fishermen, and livestock raisers to make advance reports of production plans and limit their financial losses.

 

The system would free the government from having constantly to take emergency measures to deal with agricultural crises, he said.

 

To solve overproduction problems, measures such as sales promotion both for local markets and for exports would be implemented: boosting processing into canned or other products, and increasing storage for example, Su said.

 

In recent weeks, pork prices in Taiwan have plunged and pig farmers have urged the government to stem the fall in prices.

 

In response, the state-owned Taiwan Sugar Corp. (Taisugar), the island's largest pig producer announced it would reduce its pig herd by 10 percent to 380,000, from the current 420,000.

 

Taiwan has recently implemented hog traceability measures and a hog insurance fund in an effort to discourage cases where farmers sold pork from diseased pork into the market.