Pingtung County Farmers Voice Concern over Plummeting Prices|水果跌價一波波 屏東農民陳情

The prices of bananas, pineapples and pitayas have been plummeting this year due to a bumper harvest. On the morning of July 9 a farmers association has come to the local city council to voice their concern and to call on the government to set up an emergency management center in order to put new warning and subsidy mechanisms in place.


Farmers from Pingtung County have suffered massive financial loss due to the plummeting prices of bananas, pineapples and pitayas. Close to 50 local farmers have congregated at the City Council to voice their concern.

The government has misled the public by confusing the fruit prices at the field and the wholesale prices. They must understand exactly how low the prices are at the fields.

Our lemons are very sour and sweet, they are very competitive as a product. But why can't the government sell it to other channels? Because they've failed to integrate the entire fruit industry.

The farmers have called on the government to set up an emergency management center and adjust the standard for subsidies for agricultural products, put new warning mechanism in place to manage the lack of balance between production volume and sales. The farmers have also called on the government to explore channels to sell fruits abroad since Taiwan's domestic market offers very limited consumption.

According to our current government budget, there is a very limited amount of funding that we can come up (to meet the farmers' demand). But we will contact the country magistrate and see if he's able to arrange a budget from other sources.

Both local and central governments have said that they are working on selling to outside channels. On the other hand, the government officials said they need further meetings on the adjustment of subsidies for agricultural products.