Taiwan, China's only organic vegetable auction gets underway! New Taipei Agriculture Department: build the market channel first, then open the farming road

Text by Upstream and Downstream reporters Kong Delian and Lai Yuwei

Late at night in the small hours, the fruit and vegetable auction market is still bustling with crowds, and the traders are all rubbing their hands, ready to pounce like hyenas the moment the time comes and fight over their prey. Yet in one corner of the Banqiao auction market, quite a few oddities appear: a row of brand-new refrigerators filled with all kinds of leafy greens packed in plastic bags; behind them, on a bright three-meter-large billboard, several large characters spell out "Organic Auction Zone."

This is the Banqiao Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market, which first began operating in April last year. Its difference from traditional markets of the past lies in its fully electronic trading, which guarantees payment to farmers within three days; the site also incorporates solar power generation and uses lithium iron battery transport vehicles. Beyond the differences in equipment, since August last year it has also launched the nation's first and only "Organic Fruit and Vegetable Auction Zone," in an attempt to align policy-wise with the agricultural authorities' all-out push for organic agriculture.

"You definitely have to build the market channel first, then open the farming road," emphasized Zhang Jiawei, section chief of the Agriculture, Animal Husbandry Section of the New Taipei City Government Agriculture Department, who wants the organic auction zone to align with New Taipei's organic agriculture policy and open up supply and demand channels for organic agriculture.