Home › General News › Article

One Year of the Pandemic" Agricultural Exports Decline 11.9%; Sugar Apples and Murcott Mandarins Need Rescue, Rice and Bananas Grow

General News 0 views
One Year of the Pandemic" Agricultural Exports Decline 11.9%; Sugar Apples and Murcott Mandarins Need Rescue, Rice and Bananas Grow

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to burn around the world, freight rates and packaging material costs keep rising, and agricultural products that once shone in export markets are being blocked one after another, with the impact carrying over from this time last year into this year. For export stars pineapple and edamame, the biggest headache right now is the sharp rise in freight and packaging material costs; farmers in Murcott Mandarin production areas say the current export situation is "lots of inquiries, no orders." Export volume and price for pineapple sugar apple are both below previous years, and pineapple sugar apples that should have been exported have flowed back into the domestic market, also crowding out the large-fruited sugar apple that is mainly sold domestically.

Misfortunes never come singly: recent abnormal weather, with low temperatures and lots of rain, has caused large-fruited sugar apples to split, leading to poor appearance and plummeting prices. Farmers in production areas say that split fruit actually tastes better than grade-A fruit and has a springier texture, and they ask fellow citizens to lend more support. The Taitung District Farmers' Association is launching a promotion: two kinds of sugar apple at 10 Taiwan jin per box for 800 yuan with free shipping, and pineapple sugar apple is buy five get one free; for group orders of 20 boxes or more shipped to the same address, each box is only 600 yuan. The promotion runs until January 20, and fellow citizens are asked to lend more support. (Buy sugar apples here)

Large-fruited sugar apple (Photo source / Tai Yang Hen Duo)

Trade volume with China and Japan declines, export value to the US grows

Last year (2020), the pandemic caused global trade chaos, and Taiwan's agricultural products were no exception: total export value in 2020 was 660 million USD less than in 2019 (a decrease of 11.9%). Lin Chih-hung, deputy director of the International Affairs Division of the Council of Agriculture, explained that Taiwan's top three agricultural export destinations are China, Japan and the US; export trade value to China fell the most, down 257.596 million USD, a 20.2% decline from the previous year; export trade value to Japan fell 149.854 million USD, a 16.4% decline from the previous year.

For major agricultural export items such as edamame, pineapple and pineapple sugar apple, export volumes all declined slightly last year. Industry figures and experts in the pineapple and edamame sectors both believe that last year the pandemic mainly affected first-quarter orders, sales models changed slightly, and subsequent orders gradually stabilized, but the costs of cartons and packaging materials and transport fees rose, and arrival times in some countries became impossible to confirm. This will be the biggest challenge for exports this year.

Pineapple exports proceed as usual, but freight and carton prices rise

From January to November last year, pineapple export volume fell by 5,294 metric tons compared with the same period the previous year. Chen Ying-yen, chairman of the board of the Da Mao Fruit and Vegetable Production Cooperative, which has exported pineapples for many years, said last year's pandemic mainly affected the first quarter, because pineapple exports depend on the Chinese market, and when the Covid-19 outbreak first hit, transportation within China was in chaos, which also disrupted export operations, but after the second quarter, logistics gradually stabilized, and orders in the second half of the year were as normal as in previous years. "We just shipped out a container yesterday."

Global trade is currently in the grip of a container shortage. Chen Ying-yen believes Taiwan's fruit export volume will only increase from March, and at present only pineapple, pineapple sugar apple and wax apple have export demand, so there will not be a container shortage for the time being. Compared with containers, what is truly headache-inducing is the rise in transport and packaging material costs; carton manufacturers have already said prices may rise by up to 15% this year.

Chen Ying-yen said Taiwan's fruit industry weathered the SARS outbreak in the past, and although this Covid-19 pandemic is severe, it is also the best opportunity for the pineapple industry to upgrade. He believes planting quality must be raised and pesticide use reduced; once quality is raised to a certain level, customers are unlikely to drift away.

Related Articles