Red yam unsold, caring daughter goes all out to promote them for her farmer father

Chen Qingbin has grown tea in Mingjian, Nantou for thirty years, but in recent years the price of his tea has kept falling, and since red yam (purple yam) prices were excellent last year, he switched to growing red yam this year, renting three fen of land (about 0.3 hectares) and harvesting six thousand jin.

After the red yam harvest, however, contact with wholesalers did not go smoothly; the wholesalers either were unwilling to buy or drove the price down below cost. With six thousand jin of red yam unsold, Chen Qingbin was deeply troubled, but when a reporter asked, he only said quietly: "Hmm, there has been a little problem with sales recently."

The family's troubles, known to the children

Chen Qingbin has farmed for decades, growing tea, turmeric and red yam, and he also attended organic agriculture courses at Nantou Community College and put them into practice in his farming. Most farmers growing crops use granular pesticides against soil pests, such as Furadan, but Chen Qingbin says: "I use tea seed meal instead of pesticides, so the crops are grown in an environmentally friendly way and eating them puts no burden on our bodies." His Facebook page also features many photos of the fields, captioned with remarks like "What a big earthworm!" and "Sharing with the bugs."

Speaking of the unsold red yam, Chen Qingbin said helplessly that he had grown tea for thirty years and watched as local tea came under pressure from imported tea in recent years, with tea planting area shrinking year by year and many tea gardens switching to other crops. Last year he also decided to try a new crop, switching to red yam, and never expected that he would not be able to sell it.

"If it were tea, I know many wholesalers and tea shops, and it wouldn't go unsold. But this year is my first time growing red yam, I don't really know wholesalers, and I don't really know how to sell red yam..." Chen Qingbin said. All three of his children grew up on the farm, helping out with whatever had to be planted, and they all helped with the family's farm work; "this time they'll have to help with the sales too."

Chen Qingbin counted them off: "My youngest child is at home helping, the second one will be on holiday tomorrow, and the eldest daughter, Yijie, is studying at Tunghai and probably won't be able to come home until this Saturday."

Thirty-five yuan per jin, hoping to ease the unsold-goods predicament

Although Chen Yijie is not home yet, she has already taken up her post as the family's "marketing director," helping to sell this batch of six thousand jin of unsold red yam. In her promotional copy, she details how to cook red yam, including sweet potato cakes, red yam sweet soup, yam sago soup and red yam pearl balls. She also thoughtfully reminds buyers how to handle it: "For yam that has been cut, peel and cut into chunks, seal and refrigerate, and it is best to finish eating it within a week"; "A whole yam need only be kept in a cool, ventilated place, where it will keep for three months"; "When handling yam, it is best to wear gloves, or first wash your hands with salt water, to avoid the itching caused by the plant alkaloids in the yam skin."

On sales strategy, Chen Yijie said: "Because our family's red yam is such a large quantity, in order to sell it as quickly as possible and ease the family's financial burden, we will adopt a small-profit, high-volume sales approach." One Taiwan jin of red yam is priced at thirty-five yuan, slightly lower than market price, and delivered to the door by home delivery.

The Chen family's battle to sell six thousand jin of unsold red yam is not for company performance, but for the family's livelihood, and Chen Yijie and her family are continuing to work hard at it: "We ask anyone willing to order to call 049-2730153 or 0921-797077 or email: [email protected] , fax: 0492738599 to contact Mr. Chen Qingbin (my dad). We also beg everyone to help pass this message on to relatives and friends."