Cichitou Golden Banana is inherently cold-resistant and rigorously managed, breaking through the bottleneck of exporting to Japan
(Continued from previous text) With golden-yellow peels, sweet and chewy, Yunlin's "Golden Banana" has shone brilliantly in exports to Japan, bringing a bright dawn to the years-long predicament of banana sales to Japan. Su Mingli, chairman of the board of the "Yunlin County Cichitou Fruit and Vegetable Production Cooperative" (hereinafter referred to as "Cichitou Cooperative"), who has 50 years of banana-growing experience, leads professional farmers in their efforts, replacing short-term price manipulation with long-term stable production-and-marketing cooperation, aiming to attract more young farmers as a new force and to return high-quality Taiwan bananas to the Japanese market.
Controlling quantity from banana seedlings, the cooperative shoulders the heavy responsibility of sales
In addition to technical guidance, regulating output and connecting with sales channels is also one of the Cichitou Cooperative's tasks. Every year before the Lunar New Year, Golden Banana seedlings are uniformly provided to farmers, planted in four batches according to the Gregorian calendar in February, March, April and May. This not only controls the output of each period, but also deliberately avoids the most fiercely competitive battlefield of domestic fruits from June to August, mainly out of consideration that bananas do not keep well in the scorching summer heat, and the cooperative is unwilling to make banana prices at their summer trough even worse.
Su Mingli further pointed out that through the number of banana seedlings distributed each period, output can be estimated and order sizes adjusted. In addition, since his own fields also have a certain production capacity, he can accept orders with confidence. "Even if some farmers leave or this period's output is poor, at least my own volume can still be used for adjustment. Some distributors only buy goods and do not grow their own, so they face pressure when purchasing, but we do not, so we can focus on taking care of the farmers."
Young farmer Zheng Kunhe said that seeing the older generation of banana farmers optimistic about the export market for Golden Banana and hoping one after another to make the Taiwan banana name known again, he was willing to stay in his hometown and work hard. He pointed out that the purchase price here is good; even if the market price is cheaper, as long as it is produced by members, the cooperative will "take in everything listed" and will help farmers find channels to move the product or sell it to processing plants. "Farmers only need to focus on production." He currently manages 0.8 jia of banana orchard, and also follows the cooperative's suggestion to rotate with rice every two years, which can reduce soil pathogen density and prevent the occurrence of yellow leaf disease.
