Hurry up and eat Taiwan red beans! Red bean wholesale prices are falling, farmers are heartbroken over working for nothing, and they worry that opening up the herbicide "Kusagari" will let wholesalers drive prices down even further

By Upstream and Downstream reporters Li Huiyi and Yang Yuyun

Starting in mid-December, domestically grown red beans have gradually entered their production season, yet the opening price is only at the farmers' cost price, which amounts to working for nothing! In the previous two years, the average purchase price ranged between 38 yuan and 41 yuan per jin, but this year the opening prices in the main production areas of Kaohsiung and Pingtung have all been unsatisfactory, with both Daliao in Kaohsiung and Wandan in Pingtung at 36 yuan/jin. According to various accounts, the sluggish wholesale price is mainly due to high inventories and low market consumption.

The low wholesale price has left farmers unable to recover their costs, and a small number of farmers would rather not sell to wholesalers after harvesting, hauling the red beans home to store instead, while farmers who have not yet harvested often gather to discuss predictions about future wholesale price changes. This year the atmosphere during the red bean harvest season is eerie, farmers cannot bring themselves to smile, and on top of that, the government has yet to reach a conclusion on whether to open up the herbicide "Kusagari" for use as a red bean defoliant, leaving production areas even more anxious.

At a press conference last week on December 14 marking the results of "halving chemical pesticides in ten years," Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung stated that a decision on whether to open up the herbicide "Kusagari" as a red bean defoliant would be made in the near future, but farmers worry that once it is opened up it will affect red bean prices, and that "Kusagari" will become the last straw that breaks the bean price's back.

Background knowledge: Red beans are rich in protein, higher than both wheat and white rice, and relatively low in calories. Because the whole bean is used, the nutrition is more complete, and they are rich in dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals, making them a healthy staple choice as well as a delicious dessert. Many people also drink red bean water to reduce edema. Red beans are an important winter crop in the south and a distinctive agricultural sight unique to the Kaohsiung and Pingtung areas.

Market demand is low; it will be difficult for red bean prices to rise in the future

The red bean industry is mainly based on field-side transactions, with wholesalers mostly going to the edge of red bean fields to purchase the red beans farmers have grown. The Agriculture and Food Agency has mentioned on multiple public occasions over the past two years that the wholesale purchase price for red beans should be no lower than 38 yuan to 40 yuan/jin, but the purchase prices wholesalers quoted on the 14th and 16th in Daliao and Wandan respectively were both 36 yuan/jin.

Mr. Li (a pseudonym), a wholesaler in Pingtung, said that the processing plants he regularly supplies have seen their output decline year after year, dropping by as much as 30 percent this year, and with demand low, the purchase price naturally cannot be high. He further said that in the past people drank mung bean soup in summer and red bean soup in winter, but nowadays most of that has been replaced by the bubble tea market. He stressed, "Only if everyone eats more red beans will it have any effect on the price."

Chung Ching-hui, director-general of the Meinong Farmers' Association, said that Taiwan's red beans are currently in oversupply, consumers eat too few of them, and the inventories of consecutive years have not been digested.

Production costs are gradually rising; the more farmers plant, the more bitter it gets. A wholesale price of 36 yuan means they cannot even recover their costs

Abnormal weather has caused pest and disease control costs to only increase and never decrease. According to the Agriculture and Food Agency's cost analysis for red beans as a miscellaneous grain crop in the 108th year, current production costs include seedlings, fertilizer, pesticides, labor and other expenses, averaging 8,810 yuan per fen.

However, this year southern Taiwan was hot in autumn and winter, pollination was poor, and the average yield of red beans was only 250 jin to 300 jin per fen. Calculated at 36 yuan/jin, farmers' income falls between 9,000 yuan and 10,800 yuan. The red bean growing period is about 100 days, so from this perspective, after being busy for more than three months, farmers can earn only between 190 yuan and 1,990 yuan.

Chen Kuo-hua, a young farmer in Wandan, grows 3 hectares of red beans, of which about 2 hectares are under contract with the Wandan Farmers' Association. He said the association's contract purchase price is 40 yuan/jin, and this is his only income this year. As for non-contracted red beans, the purchase price is only 36 yuan/jin. "This is my cost price, which means I am working entirely for nothing."

Meinong farmer Hsiao Cheng-lung has not yet harvested his red beans. He estimates this year's yield will be worse than in the past. Previously, an average fen could produce 400 jin, but now reaching 350 jin already counts as a high yield. With lower yields and sluggish purchase prices, even though the warm sun is shining brightly in Pingtung at this time, what red beans are facing is a cold winter.

Agriculture and Food Agency: Wait quietly for the January wholesale price. A small number of farmers don't want to sell, but if most people don't sell, that won't work either

Chen Li-yi, section chief of the Crop Production Division of the Agriculture and Food Agency, said the red bean wholesale price will not be quoted until January next year. He said this year's red bean planting area and yield are about the same as before, and the main consumption of red beans is in processed products rather than ordinary retail. As he understands it, the quantity of processed products has not decreased either. He advised farmers who have not yet harvested not to be anxious and to wait until the wholesale price comes out.

Mr. Li, who lives at the border of Wandan and Xinyuan in Pingtung, is over fifty and grows beans on 5.2 fen. On December 20, he harvested about 1,000 jin from 4 fen of land. Because the wholesale price was too low, he was unwilling to sell to a wholesaler, so he simply hauled the thousand jin of red beans back to his own warehouse. "I want to wait a month and see if the price gets any better. Anyway, it's already this low now!"

He heard that some farmers, following wholesalers' advice, said it was fine not to sell for the time being but that they could first leave the beans stored in the wholesalers' warehouses. He said with a bitter smile, "They call it storage, but this is only meant to soothe the farmers. In the end, won't the farmers still obediently sell at a low price?"