Peanut purchase still incomplete Yunlin County Magistrate Chang Li-shan urges the Council of Agriculture to continue purchases

On the first day of 2020, Yunlin County Magistrate Chang Li-shan kept up her relentless concern over the production and sales problems of Yunlin peanuts, and at noon on the 1st she made a special trip to Shuilin Township to show concern for peanut farmers; for the portion of purchases still not completed, she urged the Council of Agriculture to continue purchasing in order to protect farmers' income.

Magistrate Chang Li-shan said that last year peanut production fell by about 20 percent, yet prices instead dropped; the county government continued to care about prices and farmers' needs and spoke out for peanut farmers. After Yunlin County Council Deputy Speaker Su Chun-hao led nonpartisan elected representatives and peanut farmers to the Council of Agriculture in Taipei on December 19 to petition about the purchase issue, she thanked the Council of Agriculture for responding to public opinion by announcing on December 20 that the Director-General and Deputy Directors-General of the Agriculture and Food Agency, three officials in turn, would be stationed at the Yunlin office to direct operations, help farmers resolve purchase-related problems, and promise to complete the guided peanut purchase by the end of last month (12/31).

Magistrate Chang Li-shan said that after receiving a report from County Councilor Huang Wen-hsiang, many farmers had petitioned that their peanuts had not yet been purchased; in addition, recent weather changes meant some late-harvested peanuts had not finished drying, and farmers worried that with the purchase deadline already past, there was no telling what would become of the unpurchased peanuts. She therefore arranged an on-site visit to understand the situation and has instructed the county government's Agriculture Department to send an official letter to the Council of Agriculture, hoping to convey that the Council of Agriculture should continue peanut purchases so that farmers' basic income can be protected.

In addition, Magistrate Chang Li-shan also called on the central government to raise the import tariff on peanuts, and on garlic as well; peanuts and garlic are two major agricultural products of Yunlin, and to protect farmers' rights and interests, the import tariff should be raised to an excess tax rate comparable to that for red beans, in order to reduce the volume of peanut imports and protect local peanut farmers. Yunlin County stands with farmers and works together for local agriculture such as peanuts.