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Cabbage prices fall earlier than expected: domestic overplanting and a doubling of imports have growers hoping for cold weather to save the market

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Cabbage prices fell earlier than expected! Domestic overplanting surges, imports more than double, and everyone is hoping cold weather will push prices back up

Domestic cabbage (gaoli cai) planting has surged since August this year, and from October the cabbage market price has already begun trending downward, with even "three for fifty yuan" promotions appearing. In response, officials said that some fields had serious pest and disease problems and poor quality, which dragged down the overall price, and they expect that as temperatures drop, the quality of harvested cabbage will stabilize.

Besides the domestic production surge, cabbage imports this year have also doubled compared with the same period last year. The Agriculture and Food Agency said that the area planted to cabbage in the first crop was reduced, making the summer vegetable shortage obvious, which is why imports increased. Some traders also pointed out that this year they finally succeeded in trial-planting in Southeast Asia a soft-leaf cabbage that better suits the eating habits of people in the country, which can change the impression that "imported cabbage is harder and less tasty," so imports of soft-leaf cabbage have risen slightly, but they stressed that from October there will be no more large-scale imports, to avoid clashing with the big domestic cabbage harvest.

From October the flatland cabbage season begins, and workers are busy harvesting in the fields (photo / Lin Pei-chun)

Cabbage rush-planting wave: September still a yellow-light warning

Domestic cabbage planting begins in August. Because farmers expected good prices this year, because recent heavy rain pushed the replanting period toward the same time, and because the government launched a "production registration system" for the first time and announced guaranteed-price purchases, August saw three consecutive ten-day periods of rush cabbage planting, and the number of seedlings supplied even hit a "purple alert" crisis. The Agriculture and Food Agency urgently issued warning notices, urging farmers not to increase planting area further or to spread out their planting periods.

Cabbage takes about 70 days to grow, so seedlings planted in early August are expected to be ready for harvest soon, and the main flatland cabbage season is now beginning. According to fruit and vegetable market trading data across Taiwan, China, the price of cabbage that has just come to market is already much lower than at the same time last year, and the curve keeps heading down (blue line in the chart), at around 25 yuan per kilogram, with the early-autumn market average on the 16th at 14.2 yuan/kg. In addition, some fields are reported to have such abundant cabbage that prices fell short of expectations, offering it to the public to pick themselves at 10 yuan each, and "3 for 50 yuan" promotions have also appeared on the market.

Comparison of daily cabbage trading price and volume last year and this year; the price is clearly lower than last year (provided / Agriculture and Food Agency)

Yunlin Agriculture Department: vegetables planted in early August are now hitting the market in volume

In response, Gao Jianping, section chief of the Agricultural Development Section of the Yunlin County Agriculture Department, said, "Cabbage planted in early August has just started being harvested, which is why market volume is peaking." He explained that most vegetable farmers rush to plant in the first wave in early August, so the cabbage can be harvested in mid-October; any later and it would run into the flatland cabbage flood season and fetch poorer prices, and after harvest there is still plenty of time for the leaves in the field to rot and serve as base fertilizer nutrients.

After that, the second wave of cabbage seedlings is planted in late November, in the hope that harvesting at the end of January, near the Lunar New Year, will bring a chance of a big price rise. "Many farmers tend to plant cabbage at these two points, early August and late November, because prices in between (meaning November and December) are generally the lowest. Of course this has to do with the government repeatedly urging farmers not to rush-plant, and the warning effect taking hold."

Gao Jianping pointed out that from October the flatland cabbage peak season begins, and given market supply and demand, prices would naturally "dip a bit," but overall there is no collapse; only in isolated fields where pest and disease problems are more severe and harvested cabbage quality is poor, and wholesalers are unwilling to buy, do prices drop abnormally low.

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