As the weather begins to cool down, apples, pears, grapefruit, and citrus produced in the autumn started to be listed. Bananas have also entered their harvest period. The main domestic banana-producing areas include Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Hainan, Guizhou, and other regions, but Taiwan was still the best market in previous years.
Last year, Taiwan's banana market was good, and the purchase price at the place of origin reached 6 yuan/kg, which was hot in the mainland market and was in short supply. But this year, the mainland market closed for some reasons, and Taiwan's fruit industry was in a slump.
First of all, affected by the climate, Taiwan's bananas are ripening earlier than in previous years. The current weather in Taiwan's production areas is still very hot, and bananas are not long gone, which is the direct cause of the large number of bananas on the market and the price cut. Secondly, since the beginning of this year, the price of bananas has been very high, much higher than in previous years, resulting in the expansion of fruit planting. The planting area of bananas on the island increased significantly, and production also increased this year. Third, the mainland market is closed to Taiwan's bananas, while other countries in Southeast Asia have large banana imports and good quality products.
Recently, the bananas on the island have not been not selling, and the price has collapsed. A whole truckload of bananas is only sold for NT$1,000 (about 200 yuan), and a lot of bananas are sent to the concentration site to be dumped and prepared as feed for pigs.
Zheng Yongyu, director of the Agricultural Department of Pingtung County, Taiwan, said that due to greater climate change and more rainfall, there were a large number of inferior bananas, which attracted no interest in the market. The price in the production area has fallen sharply from the original price of NT$20-30 per kilogram, and the price of inferior products has even fallen to NT$3-4 per kilogram (less than one yuan).
Industry insiders pointed out that Taiwan's Agriculture and Grain Department purchased bananas at a price of NT$5 per kilogram, and a box of bananas (about 20 kilograms) was subsidized by about NT$100. But banana farmers in Kaohsiung wanted to transport bananas to Ligang for processing. It is a round-trip distance of 10 kilometers. After deducting the cost of harvesting and transportation, the profit is only about NT$40 per box. Therefore, it is suggested that the government simply let the banana farmers use their products for compost, and they will get NT$100 per box. The government then does not have to pay extra to send bananas to pig farms as food waste.
Source: Fresh Legends