Fruit and vegetable prices generally fall after the Spring Festival; building dedicated cold-chain fruit and vegetable trains to prevent fruit and vegetable prices from falling
Last year, Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation saw overall vegetable auction prices drop by 30% due to multiple factors such as a surge in fruit and vegetable supply, weak consumption, and consecutive market closures. This year, subsidies are expected to help Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation build a cold-chain system to extend the freshness period of fruits and vegetables. Let's take a look.
Connecting production areas, using a cold-chain system to extend the freshness of fruits and vegetables
A cold-chain system is not just cold storage rooms and refrigerators; it also includes the post-harvest handling process in the field, pre-cooling at storage centers, transportation to markets, and so on, a whole series of processes. Doing cold-chain transportation well helps extend the freshness of fruits and vegetables and regulate the volume of fruits and vegetables reaching the market.
Hu Zhongyi stated that Taiwan's cold chain is currently only half done. Even if cold-chain transportation is used at the production area, once the produce arrives at Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation, this chain breaks, and the vegetables still rot. Therefore, it is necessary to build a cold-chain system at Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation to connect the production areas.
Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation is Taiwan's largest auction market, accounting for 20% of domestic fruit and vegetable trading volume. Last year after the Lunar New Year, because the weather warmed up, fruits and vegetables were in abundant production, and post-holiday consumption power was already weak, and Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation also had consecutive market closures, overall fruit and vegetable auction prices fell by 30%. At that time, General Manager Wu Yinning briefly became the target of public criticism.
New General Manager of Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation, former Chief Secretary of the Agriculture and Food Agency Weng Zhenxin expected to be nominated
As for the candidate for the new general manager of Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation, Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Jizhong has formally recommended former Chief Secretary of the Agriculture and Food Agency and current Deputy Director-General of the Agricultural Finance Agency Weng Zhenxin; sources inside the Agriculture and Food Agency also revealed that barring any surprises, after the Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation board meeting on the 25th, Weng Zhenxin should smoothly take up the post. At that time, if the Council of Agriculture has policy needs requiring coordination or assistance from Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation, communication can be smoother.
Weng Zhenxin comes from the agricultural and food system and has held positions at the Agriculture and Food Agency including director of the Agricultural Materials Division, director of the Crop Production Division, and chief secretary. On December 7 last year, he was transferred to the Agricultural Finance Agency as deputy director-general.
Chen Jizhong said during a tea gathering with media on the 16th that Weng Zhenxin is a standing director of Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation, is familiar with its operations, and also handled the production and marketing of dragon fruit and bananas last year, which is why he recommended him to Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Corporation.
Post-holiday cabbage exports, avoiding a price collapse. In addition to building a cold-chain system to prevent post-holiday fruit and vegetable price drops, Hu Zhongyi stated that guidance has already begun for farmers to switch crops, for example converting cabbage to broccoli, increasing the diversity of fruits and vegetables. Vegetable exports have also been negotiated, targeting cabbage harvested in March and April.