Relief required for Taiwanese farmers
According to Yen Wen-Chang, a legislator of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in Taiwan yesterday, around 60% of local hog farmers will cease business in the next three months if the government fails to implement measures to counteract rising feed prices and declining pork prices.
Losses
Yen told a press conference held at the Legislative Yuan that farmers will face a loss of NT$2,000 (US$61) to NT$3,000 (US$92) for every hog sold as the price of corn has shot up from NT$9 (US$0.27) per catty from NT$4 (US$0.12) within just two months.
To make matters worse, the average hog price has dropped from NT$6,124 (US$188) per kilogram to NT$5,013 (US$154) in the past two months.
Yen has urged the Council of Agriculture (COA) to solve the feed crisis by purchasing secondary agricultural products to use as hog feed and to, in turn, counter the sharp fall in pork prices on the other.
Irregularities
Division chief of the COA, Lin Chun-chen has announced that the COA will investigate together with the Fair Trade Commission possible manipulation of corn feed prices involving feed importers.
The COA has drawn-up a strategy for the long term to deal with the problem. By the middle of next year, it is expected to have pushed up hog prices.
The state-run Taiwan Sugar Corp. has also announced that it will release its inventory of corn feed to local hog farmers, in hopes of reducing their production costs.
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