Taipei fruit and vegetable market closed for too long, triggering dissatisfaction among farmers' associations; Council of Agriculture says it is "unacceptable"
The controversy sparked by the closure of the Taipei fruit and vegetable auction market has only escalated. Many local farmers' associations are up in arms, saying that the surge in volume and drop in prices is not limited to the continuously harvested crops mentioned by the Meinong Farmers' Association.
Take Yilan white garlic as an example. Last year on February 27, the average auction price was 64 yuan per kilogram, but this year on the same day it was 21 yuan per kilogram. Farmers' association staff, facing farmers, could not voice their difficulties and angrily said, "It's more than a threefold difference. When farmers come to the farmers' association to ask, we simply don't know how to open our mouths and report vegetable prices to them." Some farmers' associations also mentioned privately, "For Meinong, it was just that prices were bad. On that day, a whole lot of the goods our farmers' association sent out was scrapped. Some farmers are already threatening to bring reporters to our farmers' association for interviews!"
In order to smooth over the controversy as quickly as possible, the Council of Agriculture specially held a meeting today (the 1st) to discuss the matter, and even issued a press release stating its position: "Regarding the Taipei fruit and vegetable wholesale market having two consecutive 3-day closures within a short 12-day period, we express that this is unacceptable."
Zhong Qinghui, director-general of the Meinong District Farmers' Association, who once served as a director of Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation (hereinafter referred to as "TAPMC"), said, "A market closure means the market shuts its doors, and everyone has absolutely no opportunity to buy or sell agricultural products. Therefore, arrangements for market closures must be especially cautious." He repeatedly emphasized, "Once the market is closed, and especially closed for three consecutive days, the ones who suffer most are of course the farmers who watch their crops grow every day but cannot ship them. Aside from worry and anger, farmers can do nothing!"
Farmers are helpless, market staff feel wronged. How should the process of deciding market closures be adjusted?
Faced with all this, including the bitterness and helplessness of farmers and the grievances of frontline market staff, is there really any way to avoid it? Can the majority-consensus decision-making process for market closures be adjusted? Did TAPMC do a good job of emergency response that day?
Section Chief Gao Zhenxiang of Taipei City said that TAPMC should perform the function of rapid collection and distribution and provide the latest information to the central Council of Agriculture in a timely manner, so that relevant units can jointly promote early production-season adjustment and same-day cargo volume dispersal. In response, Manager Wu Tianming of TAPMC said, "More than 120 employees and cadres in the auction team were on site auctioning desperately and also desperately urging consignees to enter, and no one dared leave their post."
Regarding the majority-consensus method for market closure plans, Gao Zhenxiang believes that when consumers go to the market to buy things, they usually buy enough chicken, duck, fish, meat and various fruits and vegetables in one trip. If the closure of markets for fruits, fish and livestock is not unified, it will affect buying sentiment in the end market. He said, "The overall benefit will differ. Trying to unify market closures would be a more appropriate approach." But Manager Wu Tianming of TAPMC strongly stated that if the decision-making process for unified market closures remains the same in the future, then as long as any closure issue of two days or more comes up, TAPMC will definitely insist on opposing it. "We must avoid such an impact happening again. Once is enough!"
The problem cannot be left unsolved. Zhong Qinghui, director-general of the Meinong Farmers' Association, stressed that the Market Affairs Office of the Taipei City Government must take both consumers and production areas into account. It cannot say that a majority consensus is necessarily right, and must consider "the greatest public interest." He believes that except for the Lunar New Year, market closures should try not to exceed two days, because once the market is closed for three days or more, the freshness of the fruits and vegetables consumers buy will definitely not be very good, while producers will also face the dilemma of having goods they cannot ship. He further explained, "A market closure means the market shuts its doors. Once the doors are closed, no one has any opportunity. Think about it: if the auction market opens as usual, farmers can decide for themselves whether to ship, and consignees can also decide whether to enter. But once the market is closed, no one has any choice."
Zhong Qinghui repeatedly said, "Open the doors of the fruit and vegetable market, and volume and prices will naturally return to the supply-and-demand market mechanism and find a balance point."