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Row over fruit prices
ripens
95 PERCENT PLAN: The DPP called for a plan that
would see the government buy farmers’ produce for 95% of the production cost
when prices drop below a certain level
By Chris Wang and Shih Hsiu-chuan / Staff Reporters
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
caucus whip Tsai Huang-liang, center, and other DPP legislators hold a press
conference in Taipei yesterday to challenge President Ma Ying-jeou’s accusation
that the DPP has misled the public with regard to fruit prices.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Council of Agriculture Minister
Chen Wu-hsiung, center, and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators eat
persimmons at a press conference in Taipei yesterday, as they accuse the
Democratic Progressive Party of distorting fruit prices in its campaign ads.
Photo: CNA
The real problem with the nation’s
agricultural sector is an imbalance between supply and demand and the
government’s inability to resolve the matter, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
said yesterday amid a growing war of words between political parties over the
price of persimmons.
“It’s the supply and demand imbalance, stupid,” DPP spokesperson Kang Yu-cheng
(康裕成) said during a press conference, playing off a phrase made famous by former
US president Bill Clinton during his 1992 presidential campaign.
Kang’s remark was made in response to criticism by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九)
over the DPP’s claims about falling fruit prices for farmers under his watch.
In a campaign flyer printed in the format of a calendar, the DPP listed a dozen
types of locally grown fruits that have plunged in price this year.
Ma, Council of Agriculture (COA) Minister Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄) and the Chinese
Nationalist Party (KMT) subsequently said the DPP was citing incorrect
information to mislead the public ahead of next year’s presidential and
legislative elections.
According to the DDP, prices for guavas in Changhua, longans in Greater Taichung
and Nantou, persimmons in Taitung as well as tangerines in Yunlin have all
fallen.
Ma rejected the DPP’s claim, saying that during his presidential campaign trips
he had seen non-astringent persimmons sold for NT$41.5 per 600g, not NT$2 per
600g as the DPP says.
“The real issue here is that fruit growers sell their produce at a cost that is
far lower than the cost of production, not how much those fruits sell for in the
markets,” Kang said.
Ma made a “serious mistake” by citing wholesale and retail prices, rather than
local prices, which is the price that actually relates to farmers’ income, Kang
said.
While the persimmons shown on the flyer were non-astringent persimmons, the DPP
was trying to highlight that astringent persimmons were being sold to local
wholesalers at very low prices, DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said.
However, Lin said Ma had missed the main point of the flyer, which was that the
selling price for Taiwan-grown fruit has been far less than their average
production cost.
The DPP caucus called on Ma to tackle the supply imbalance problem immediately
and adopt a “95 percent mechanism” in which the government would purchase farm
produce at 95 percent of the production cost whenever the selling price fell
below specific prices monitored by the government.
Fruit imports from China between January and last month showed a 71 percent
increase in comparison with the same period last year, DPP Legislator Pan Men-an
(潘孟安) said, adding that the drop in prices could be because of the Economic
Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) signed between Taiwan and China in June
last year.
An “early harvest” list accompanying the ECFA includes a number of agricultural
products from Taiwan.
Citing statistics compiled by the Council of Agricultural Affairs, DPP
Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) said Taiwan exported 1,585 tonnes of bananas last
year, but the figure showed a considerable drop this year, plunging to 859
tonnes between January and last month.
The DPP is not alone in drawing attention to the issue of falling produce
prices, Chiu said, as numerous media outlets have been reporting on the
phenomenon since June.
About one in five farmers does not qualify for government subsidies for natural
disaster compensation because of unreasonable regulations, Lai Kun-cheng (賴坤成),
a legislator from Taitung County, said, adding that he suspected that COA
officials have kept the truth from Ma.
On Thursday, DPP Legislator Chen Min-wen (陳明文) disclosed a delivery order he had
obtained from a local fruit grower in Fanlu Township (番路), Chiayi County, which
showed that various grades of persimmons were sold for NT$2, NT$6 and NT$7 per
kilogram, or NT$1.2, NT$2.4 and NT$4.2 per 600g (the equivalent of one Taiwanese
jin, a traditional unit of weight).
Chen Min-wen urged Ma and Chen Wu-hsiung to inspect local prices in southern and
eastern parts of the country, saying that most DPP legislators came from
counties with a large agricultural output and tended to have a better
understanding of local agricultural development.
“What the Ma administration should do is listen and then solve the problem,
instead of blasting the DPP,” Chen Min-wen said.
KMT lawmakers and legislative candidates called a press conference demanding
Tsai apologize to farmers.
Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), a legislative candidate in Greater Taichung, tore apart the
DPP’s calendar, saying that farmers were so angry they planned to throw
persimmon at the DPP headquarters in protest.
Chen Wu-hsiung said the claim that persimmons sold for NT$2 per 600g had caused
farmers losses.
“It peeves me that the DPP didn’t bother to check the prices before it blamed
others,” he said.
A persimmon farmer from Greater Taichung said that he was a victim of the DPP’s
claim because his wholesalers decided to cancel all orders for fear of being
overcharged.
“Non-astringent persimmons were never sold for less than NT$50 a jin, even while
they were in season. After the DPP claimed that the price was NT$2 a jin, all my
orders were canceled,” he said.
Hsu Kuei-kuang (徐貴光) said the picture of the persimmon, a Japanese variety named
Maekawa Jiro, featured by the DPP was priced at more than NT$50 per 600g.
At a separate setting, Miaoli County Commissioner Liu Cheng-hung (劉政鴻) and some
farmers called a press conference saying they would mobilize their peers to
stage a protest in Taipei if Tsai failed to apologize within three days.
“If there is a place where sweet [non-astringent] persimmons sell for NT$2 a jin,
I would like to buy 60 million grams at a price of NT$10 a jin,” Liu said.
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