March 21, 2007

Taiwan takes measures to stem decline in hog prices

Taiwan's Council of Agriculture (COA) will take measures to monitor hog production and maintain stable pork prices, COA Chairman Su Jia-quan said Monday (Mar 19).

The COA recently announced a price monitoring system for 17 types of agricultural produce including fruits, vegetables, livestock and fishery products.

Su made the comments during a legislative session on the government's countermeasures to tackle dwindling pork prices over the past eight months.

Affected by a glut of hogs, Taiwan's wholesale pork prices are currently below production cost.

Farm authorities are sponsoring promotional activities around the country beginning April 1 to help boost pork prices, the officials said.

Noting that the hog industry been hit by a rise in corn prices and a slew of tainted pork cases recently, Su said that the COA has assisted hog farmers in controlling the number of animals raised and set up a price stabilization fund to maintain pork prices.

Meanwhile, Kaohsiung County's agricultural and farm bureau officials predicted that pork prices would soon rebound in mid-June as production eased. The county is Taiwan's most populous county.  

The size of Taiwan's pig herd fell to 7.09 million last November, down by about 130,000 from last May.

Taiwan's producers are now encouraged to file advanced output reports so as to be compensated when they suffer losses due to overproduction.