Beinong opens for the first time after the consecutive holiday; the agricultural sector voluntarily stocks up and cuts shipments to weather the hard times together
The Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation (Beinong), which was closed for three consecutive days from March 5 to 7, will open in the early hours of today (the 8th) to conduct auctions of all arriving agricultural products. To avoid a repeat of the disastrous price crash caused by a flood of arrivals on February 27, farmers in production areas and farmers' associations were on high alert, going all out yesterday (the 7th) to independently adjust their shipment volumes.
Facing the battle of the 8th market opening, farmers and farmers' associations spring into action, independently adjusting shipment volumes
In Xiluo, Yunlin, one of the production areas for leafy vegetables, some farmers insisted on not plowing their crops under, stressing that all grain crops are "heaven-sent rice" bestowed on all beings by the Lord of Heaven, and therefore opened their vegetable gardens for religious groups to use for poverty relief or activities. In Meinong, the largest production area for the continuously harvested crop snap beans, most farmers stocked up on their own; although they could not ship during the market closure, they still hired people to harvest every day, and after three days of accumulation, the farmer with the largest stockpile already had as much as 1,800 kg of snap beans at home.
As for the farmers' associations, those in various areas were all on high alert. The Erlun Farmers' Association in Yunlin actively promoted plowing crops under and corporate adoption, and publicized the opening of cold storage facilities for farmers' use; its shipment volume on the 7th was less than half that of the day of the flood of arrivals. The Xingang Farmers' Association in Chiayi encouraged farmers to ship first the vegetables harvested during the market closure, and to delay as much as possible the vegetables harvested on the day the market opened. The Meinong Farmers' Association in Kaohsiung helped farmers spread out their shipments across markets; in addition to Beinong's First Fruit and Vegetable Market (Market One), it also suggested that farmers spread shipments to Beinong's Second Fruit and Vegetable Market (Market Two) and the Taichung Fruit and Vegetable Auction Market.
As for Chen Chi-chung, deputy chairman of the Council of Agriculture, he personally went to Yunlin yesterday (the 7th) to brief farmers in production areas on the supply adjustment plan. He said that farmers' associations in various production areas had already done their utmost to adjust supply, and that the agricultural products shipped to Beinong by the two major farmers' associations of Tuku and Erlun alone were fully more than two hundred metric tons less than on February 27. He stressed, "At present it looks like there should be no problem!"
Farmers' associations worry about future difficulties, look forward to the market reconstruction plan
However, Yeh Chin-hui, director of the Erlun Farmers' Association, had hidden concerns. She said that because farmers are currently waiting to see and dare not ship too much, if auction prices are good on the first day after the market opens, farmers may rush to ship again. She said, "We must watch not only the first day after the market opens; the second day may also be a test."
Chen Ming-jen, director of the Xingang Farmers' Association, said that in addition to the overly long market closure and the weather being too hot, the reasons for the flood of arrivals and price collapse included insufficient unloading space at the market; many agricultural products could not be unloaded and had to wait until the first round of auctions was completed and the floor cleared before they had a chance to enter, but after the second round of unloading, there were no longer any consignees at the market, and nobody wanted the products at all.
Chen Ming-jen further explained, "When Beinong opened in the 63rd year of the Republic of China [1974], the site was designed for a daily trading volume of 600 metric tons. The current weekday trading volume is about 1,200 metric tons, so of course unloading cannot be completed in time when there is a flood of arrivals. As far as I can remember, Beinong's market reconstruction plan has been discussed for more than ten years, but it still has not been resolved. I hope this incident can make the government face this problem squarely."
Chen Chi-chung also responded positively to this. In an interview, he specifically said that farmers and farmers' groups were not only actively responding to the market closure crisis, but also hoped that the three major issues of the market closure system, market reconstruction, and the establishment of a cold chain for agricultural products could be changed at the institutional level. He stressed, "These are all directions the Council of Agriculture will work toward in the future."