105 years of agricultural statistics break records! Rice consumption hits historic low | Food self-sufficiency rate 31%, lowest in nine years | Fruit and vegetable imports hit historic high

Taiwanese people's rice consumption has hit a historic low! According to the Council of Agriculture's latest "Food Supply and Demand Annual Report," per capita rice consumption in ROC year 105 (2016) fell to 44.5 kg, a sharp drop of 2.6% from the previous year. Yet overall rice production actually increased by 6 million kg compared with the previous year.

The food self-sufficiency rate continued to slide. In 105, the comprehensive food self-sufficiency rate calculated by calories was 31%, down 0.4% from the previous year, a nine-year low, and increasingly far from the government's declared target of 40%. The food production index also fell to 90.1, down 3.5% from the previous year.

The Council of Agriculture analyzed that in 105, due to the impact of a cold wave early in the year and successive typhoons, vegetables, fruits and aquatic products suffered severe damage, and coupled with reduced production of sugar cane for sugar refining, the self-sufficiency rate and production index all fell.

Rice consumption hits rock bottom, dietary habits hard to reverse

As a rice kingdom, Taiwanese people increasingly dislike eating "rice," averaging less than two bowls a day. Although the government has worked hard to promote processed rice foods and hold various good-rice competitions, and the quality of Taiwan rice has continued to improve, the public is not buying it, and rice consumption, after a slight rebound in previous years, has fallen again.

Regarding the record-low rice consumption, the Agriculture and Food Agency said the figures are indeed not as expected. Although in recent years it has vigorously promoted various rice food innovations and invited the Chinese Grain Food Industry Technology Research Institute to develop better rice flour production techniques, and more and more food businesses are willing to use rice flour to replace wheat flour, in the short term this is still not enough to reverse the public's long-standing Westernized dietary habits.

Lin Chuan-chi, head of the Agriculture and Food Agency's Food Industry Division, said, "Frankly speaking, I'm a bit disappointed to see the figures," but he explained that the calculation method for these figures may differ from actual consumption, because private rice stocks are held by businesses and cannot be precisely estimated, and many factors such as population are involved, so "we still have to look at long-term trends."

Can rice flour replace wheat flour? Su Tsung-chen, head of the Agriculture and Food Agency's Northern Region Branch, who is committed to promoting domestically produced rice foods, pointed out that in recent years flour milling and processing technology have advanced a great deal. "Foods that can be made with low-gluten flour can also be made with rice flour, and medium-gluten flour can also be replaced by wet-milled rice flour," and rice flour has no gluten allergen issue, so he hopes more manufacturers and consumers can try replacing wheat with rice.

As for the price issue that businesses care about most, Su Tsung-chen said public rice will absolutely not be more expensive than wheat. When manufacturers apply to mill public rice to make food, the government will provide a preferential price based on the arrival price of imported wheat, and in ROC year 106, 210 metric tons have already been released.

Fallow land revitalization, yet food self-sufficiency rate falls instead of rising

Compared with the decline in rice consumption, wheat flour consumption has relatively increased, climbing to 37.9 kg, getting closer and closer to rice, and almost entirely dependent on imports.

Although in recent years, driven by fallow land revitalization and coarse grain replanting policies, the area planted with domestically produced wheat has gradually expanded, its output accounts for only 0.5% of imports, and last year it was further affected by rainy weather, with severe sprouting on the ears, sharply reducing the harvest.

The Council of Agriculture is promoting the "Big Granary Plan," hoping to replace imports with coarse grain replanting. In 105, the domestic coarse grain area continued to expand, reaching 76,000 hectares, an increase of more than 4,000 hectares over 104, with total output of 490,000 metric tons. It is worth noting that the area planted with domestic soybeans climbed all the way and broke through 2,000 hectares, with output of 3,061 metric tons, and domestically produced non-GMO soybean products have successively appeared on the market, gradually gaining public favor.

However, the expectation of raising the food self-sufficiency rate by revitalizing fallow land will likely come to nothing. Since the implementation of the "Adjustment of Farming System and Revitalization of Farmland Plan," fallow area has dropped from 200,000 hectares in 100 to 75,000 hectares in 105, but the food self-sufficiency rate has fallen instead of risen.

Apart from some farmland being replanted with already surplus rice, which does not help the food self-sufficiency rate, the replanted coarse grains also seem like a futile effort against the huge import volume. Compared with the 8 million metric tons of "yellow small jade" (soybeans, wheat, corn) imported each year, the total domestic yellow small jade is only a little over 100,000 metric tons, hard to reflect in an increase in the self-sufficiency rate.

Vegetable and fruit imports surge, hitting a "record high"

Beyond the five grains and coarse grains, vegetables and fruits have always been items with a relatively high self-sufficiency rate in our country, but last year's data showed that domestic vegetables and fruits are also gradually losing ground. In 104, vegetable and fruit imports already increased greatly, and the latest 105 data broke historical records (from the Council of Agriculture's earliest statistics in ROC year 73 to the present).

According to the Council of Agriculture's food balance sheet data, in 105 vegetable imports surged to 551,000 metric tons, a 28% increase over the previous year. Fruit imports broke through 600,000 metric tons for the first time ever, reaching 629,000 metric tons, a 12% increase.

Each person eats 7.9 kg of apples a year, closing in on domestic bananas

Kang Chiang-liang, director of the Council of Agriculture's Statistics Office, explained that the cold wave early in the year and the successive typhoons Nepartak, Meranti and Megi in the middle of the year severely damaged vegetables and fruits, which was the main cause of the rise in imports. "The situation of natural disasters keeps setting records," she said. Even if there were no typhoons like this year, temperatures much higher than in previous years could also increase pests and diseases and lead to reduced production.

Looking closely at items, imports of leafy vegetables, root and stem vegetables, flower and fruit vegetables, and mushrooms all increased, with items such as cabbage, radish, onion, garlic and cauliflower particularly notable.

In fruits, the growth of oranges, apples and grapes was most obvious. Apples had the largest imports, reaching 180,000 metric tons, and each person ate 7.9 kg of foreign apples over the whole year, closing in on the 9.8 kg of domestic bananas.

Fruit exports, meanwhile, declined by more than 16,000 metric tons from the previous year to more than 173,000 metric tons. Apart from an increase in pineapple exports, most other items declined. China remained the largest export destination.

Aquatic product output falls sharply, sugar and honey also decline

In aquatic products, output in 105 fell by nearly 300,000 metric tons, dragging down the food self-sufficiency rate.

Wang Cheng-fang, deputy director-general of the Fisheries Agency, said the main reason was that squid, the highest-volume distant-water catch, plummeted from more than 260,000 metric tons in 104 to less than 30,000 metric tons. In aquaculture, the record-breaking cold wave early in the year also dealt a heavy blow, causing aquaculture to lose 59,000 metric tons of output.

Why did squid numbers plummet? Wang Cheng-fang explained, "This is a change in natural phenomena; squid have a five-to-seven-year ecological cycle," and their population happened to drop from the previous year's peak to rock bottom. The number of saury caught in the North Pacific also decreased, also due to ecological cycles.

Last year was also a difficult year for aquaculture. The strong cold wave froze to death cold-sensitive milkfish, sea bass and grouper, and milkfish alone decreased by 9,000 metric tons from the previous year. Heavy rain brought by summer typhoons also caused fish ponds to surge and fish to overflow and be lost.

In addition, tilapia output also fell by 7,000 metric tons from 104. Wang Cheng-fang said Taiwan tilapia faces price competition from mainland China and other countries, exports were hit and flowed back to the domestic market, causing supply and demand imbalance, and this phenomenon was even more obvious this year.

In meat, there was at least some good news, because last year's avian influenza outbreak was milder than the previous year, domestic output rebounded and imports fell noticeably.

Consolidating food self-sufficiency requires everyone's effort

As for sugar and honey, because sugar cane for refining continued to decline, output in 105 fell below 40,000 metric tons, a historic low. Honey output, also due to abnormal weather and pesticide poisoning, fell from more than 11,000 metric tons in 104 to more than 7,800 metric tons.

Numbers speak. When droughts and floods are frequent and extreme weather gradually becomes the norm, the threat to food is fully reflected in the statistical data. And agriculture is a classic "weather-dependent" industry, so the government must come up with effective overall policies to respond to climate change and stabilize food production.

Beyond efforts on the production side, action by all citizens is equally important. If people can adjust their dietary patterns and purchasing habits and support and consume more local agricultural products, only then can the food self-sufficiency rate possibly rise.