United Daily News: Hualien "vegetable boxes" home delivery orders surge

 

 

The government is urging people not to go out unless necessary. The Hualien County Government is guiding the Shoufeng Township Farmers' Association and the Hualien City Farmers' Association to pack agricultural products into "vegetable boxes" and deliver them to consumers via home delivery; the New Taipei Agriculture Bureau, together with New Taipei's various farmers' associations, has also successively launched "cook-at-home combo packs", featuring fresh agricultural produce and dried goods.

 

Hualien County Magistrate Hsu Chen-wei stated that the county government is actively matching the military, e-commerce platforms and mass retailers to purchase agricultural products, seeking subsidies for home delivery shipping fees and packaging cartons, helping farmers or farmers' groups promote direct sales from the place of production, and, depending on the actual supply situation of leafy vegetables, guiding farmers' groups to purchase locally grown agricultural products to donate to food bank charities or to show appreciation to frontline medical staff, thereby stabilizing the supply and marketing of agricultural products within the county.

 

Wu Kun-ju, Director of the County Government's Agriculture Department, said that Hualien is the organic capital, and its agricultural products are highly favored by many consumers. Last week, Hualien's agricultural products sold briskly through e-commerce channels, and farmers' associations even reported that they could not pack organic vegetables fast enough, with demand exceeding supply.

 

Yuansheng Haowu Farm in Shoufeng Township, which provides vegetable boxes, said that orders surged during the pandemic, and because of the large volume of home delivery logistics, the arrival date could not be specified. Orders close at noon on Monday, and delivery can only be made around Thursday or Friday. If the supply is small, they can only suspend taking orders, and they thank the ordering public for their understanding.

 

In addition, the New Taipei Agriculture Bureau cooperated with the New Taipei City Farmers' Association and 11 district farmers' associations, including Banqiao, Sanchong, Shulin, Tucheng, Xizhi, Wugu, Tamsui, Shenkeng, Sanzhi, Jinshan and Luzhou, to launch combo packs at farmers' association supermarkets or rural community shops. These contain dried goods such as pumpkin cookies, pumpkin soup, rice and noodles, as well as fresh agricultural produce such as chestnut pumpkin, melon-seed meat buns, shiitake mushroom dumplings and organic vegetables.