Cabbage prices crashed early, and farmers blame the Council of Agriculture for excessive interference and for spreading misleading claims

Cabbage prices have fallen especially fast this year. The cabbage replanted after the typhoon was originally expected to reach peak production only in the middle to late part of the month, but by early December the arrival volume at the Taipei fruit and vegetable wholesale market had already reached 300 tonnes, clearly showing that farmers were rushing to harvest early. Farmers complain that the government keeps making announcements, excessively intervening in market prices, forcing everyone into a frantic rush harvest, letting cabbage prices plummet the Council of Agriculture, however, believes that the announcements have their effect, and that this is meant to encourage farmers not to concentrate their harvesting and to spread out the risk, otherwise prices at that time would only be even worse.

Vegetable farmers: The vegetable had not been planted long before the government cracked down

According to statistics from the Taipei fruit and vegetable wholesale market, the current average price of cabbage is about 10 yuan per kilogram, and this price has already held for more than a week. Judging by the normal production period, after Typhoon Megi severely damaged vegetable production areas across Taiwan, China at the end of September, and after farmers replanted, at the earliest it would still take until after mid-December for cabbage to reach peak production, yet this year the average price of 10 yuan per kilogram has arrived early.

Cabbage farmer Zeng Jianhe of Zhutang, Changhua criticized that the government simply does not understand market mechanisms. Previously, vegetable prices rose because there was no vegetable in the market, so prices went up, yet it insisted on throwing out the false issue of vegetable profiteers and interfering with prices. Unexpectedly, after the typhoon passed and the seedlings had been planted for only 15 days, the government kept shouting that vegetable prices were going to fall, vegetable prices were going to fall, "the vegetables clearly have not even grown yet, so what vegetable prices are being cracked down on?"

Also because the government did its utmost to make announcements, and additionally according to estimates from the Council of Agriculture's "large-scale vegetable planting registration and seedling supply warning mechanism," for cabbage replanted in early October, the planting area already exceeded 60 to 80 hectares beyond the norm, and production areas began to worry that cabbage would collapse this year, producing an expectant mentality and one after another rushing to harvest.

Zeng Jianhe said that this year in the market a lot of cabbage was being sold at 60 to 70 percent maturity. The market became tense, and I was afraid prices would fall too fast, so I had no choice but to follow suit. Originally, normal harvesting of a 20-kilogram box would hold about 12 heads; with early harvesting, it had to be filled to 19 to 20 heads before it was full. Many vegetable farmers wait every year for this time to earn a little extra, but with this one shout from the government, it was simply "the cooked duck flew away."