October 26, 2007

Taiwan's pork sector urgently needs government aid
 

Taiwan's pork sector is in danger of collapsing in the next three months if the government fails to implement measures to help farmers overcome rising feed prices and declining pork prices Yen Wen-Chang, a legislator of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said Thursday (October 25, 2007).

Yen told a press conference held at the Legislative Yuan that farmers are incurring losses of NT$2,000 (US$61) to NT$3,000 (US$92) for every hog sold as the price of corn has shot up from NT$9 (US$0.27) per catty from NT$4 (US$0.12) within just two months.

Meanwhile, the average hog price has dropped from NT$6,124 (US$188) per kilogram to NT$5,013 (US$154) in the past two months.

Yen suggested that the Council of Agriculture (COA) could alleviate the crisis by purchasing secondary agricultural products to use as hog feed.

Division chief of the COA, Lin Chun-chen responded that the COA will launch investigations on possible manipulation of corn feed prices among importers.

Lin also added that the COA has drawn-up a plan to deal with low hog prices and expects six-eight months for it to take effect.

Meanwhile, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corp. announced it would release its inventory of corn feed to local hog farmers to help defray production costs.