Yunlin and Kinmen's Good Banana Friendship: 7,200 kg of Oolong Bananas Shipped to Kinmen

In response to the bumper banana harvest, Yunlin County has been actively matching enterprises or groups with banana farmers for purchases. Since late September, a total of 20,730 kg has been matched. Through the joint efforts of Yunlin County Magistrate Chang Li-shan and Kinmen County Magistrate Yang Chen-wu, the first shipment of 1 container, 480 boxes, each box 25 Taiwan jin, totaling about 7,200 kg of Oolong bananas, will arrive in Kinmen on October 15. To thank Kinmen for its goodwill in assisting Yunlin's farmers, on the 13th Magistrate Chang Li-shan also invited Magistrate Yang Chen-wu to appear together in a cross-sea video call to jointly promote Yunlin banana group buying, and also to seal the boxes of bananas about to be shipped.

Magistrate Chang Li-shan stated that through the video call she built a good friendship with Kinmen County Magistrate Yang Chen-wu, and they shared each other's counties' agricultural specialty products. In particular, through this promotion of bananas, Kinmen County and Yunlin County have established a mutually beneficial, mutually supportive, and mutually supplementing cooperative relationship, enabling bananas to be sold to Kinmen and also building the Oolong banana brand. Not only bananas, Yunlin County has also entered into contract farming of sorghum with Kinmen County. Yunlin farmers switching to growing sorghum not only uses less water but also increases income. Through contract farming with local farmers, after purchasing the sorghum it can also be sold at a good price, and this is also a long-lasting cooperative relationship.

Magistrate Chang Li-shan stated that because of the COVID-19 pandemic this time, banana exports have suffered somewhat. For this reason, the county government has worked together to match buyers, including Deputy Magistrate Hsieh Shu-ya, Citong Township Chief Lin Ching-kun, and Agriculture Director Wei Sheng-te, who have all worked very hard to promote bananas. So far, for the Oolong banana portion, nearly 21,000 kg has also been sold. In addition to public sector units, enterprises, groups, and the business community have also strongly supported it. In the future, it is hoped to build a good marketing channel, not only through connections with other counties and cities, but even to continue competing internationally, actively matching buyers for banana farmers, helping banana farmers sell at good prices, and also stabilizing the market.