Council of Agriculture Goes All Out to Support Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation: Market Opening Passes Safely | Political Wrestling and Operating System Will Be Bigger Tests for TAPMC

By Upstream and Downstream reporters Li Huiyi and Liu Yixin

After two consecutive weeks of three-day closures, the Taipei fruit and vegetable auction market finally completed its auction work smoothly today (the 8th) under close public attention. Today was the first trading day after the second consecutive three-day closure. The vegetable trading volume was 2,340 metric tons, an increase of 143 metric tons from 2,197 metric tons before the closure (the 4th). The average price per kilogram was 19.9 yuan, up 1.5 yuan from 18.4 before the closure, a rise of 8.2%.

Chen Chi-chung, deputy chairman of the Council of Agriculture, met with agricultural circles in Yunlin yesterday (the 7th) and publicly set targets, proposing that the arrival volume on market opening days remain below 2,500 metric tons and the average trading price remain above 18 yuan per kilogram. So when the overall trading figures came out at nine o'clock this morning (the 8th), all units related to the closure storm, including the Council of Agriculture, the Taipei City Government Market Affairs Office, and the Taiwan Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation (TAPMC), breathed a sigh of relief.

TAPMC General Manager Wu Yin-ning immediately held a press conference at ten o'clock this morning (the 8th), specifically explaining the situation after the market opened following the three-day closure, and stressing that the volume of fruits and vegetables received after the Lunar New Year this year was the highest in nearly ten years, yet the overall average price could still remain the third highest in ten years, "which is already not easy." She repeatedly stressed that the three-day closure previously reported by the media was absolutely not the only cause of the fluctuations in fruits and vegetables. "We have done everything we can do. All our colleagues have worked day and night, doing their utmost to handle it."

Although it passed safely, this incident made all of Taiwan realize that every move of the Taipei fruit and vegetable auction market could so easily cause social turmoil, and that TAPMC's constitution and its bizarre political relationships could affect the whole situation with a single pull; one careless move could spark conflict and cause confrontation between the central and local governments.

Zhong Qing-hui, director-general of the Meinong Farmers' Association, said that the Taipei fruit and vegetable auction market is the reference basis for wholesale prices of agricultural products across Taiwan, and the daily auction prices are indicators for purchasing at production-area markets and brokerage outlets. Chen Shu-en, a professor in the Department of Agribusiness Management at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, believes that the storm caused by three-day closures for two consecutive weeks not only affects agricultural product prices, but also reveals TAPMC's insufficient response. Chen Shu-en stressed, "Agricultural products are a daily necessity. As long as supply and demand differ by even a little, prices will differ by a lot. This is a very political thing."

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