Crowds poured into branches of the wholesale chain store RT-Mart yesterday to purchase purple yams from a poor farmer who has a little girl expecting to enter kindergarten despite the family's lack of money.
After noticing the media's reports about the girl's situation, RT-Mart decided to buy all the purple yams the Nantou farmer had to sell to help relieve his family's debt.
RT-Mart Marketing Manager Wang Tong-fan (王彤芳) said, "RT-Mart is a wholesale channel with many customers. We can achieve the goal of helping this family only with the support of our customers."
Last month Business Weekly ran a story featuring the Chen family's tribulations. The magazine reported that the farmer had had a poor harvest and, as a result, had fallen into debt.
The family tried their hand at growing purple yams because two years ago it was a profitable crop at NT$50 to NT$60 a catty. But too many farmers decided to grow taro because of the attractive prices. Last year, because of excessive yield, the price plunged to NT$10 a catty. The family could not sell their stock of purple yams.
The story of the Chen's misfortunes started began circulating on the Internet because of the Business Weekly article. It generated huge response from the Internet community, and soon RT-Mart picked up on the issue.
RT-Mart decided to purchase most of Chen's purple yams, and sell them at the wholesale price to raise money for CFhen's daughter's, Hsiao-ju, schooling. Hsiao-Ju would not have been able to attend kindergarten had the family been unable to sell its produce.
When RT-Mart announced its purple-yam campaign, it met with an unexpectedly enthusiastic reaction from the public.
Many consumers e-mailed RT-Mart to ask the price of the yams and a lot of people picked up at least one yam when they passed through the store's vegetable sections.
Meanwhile Chen has been declining donation offers. He believes he can support his family on his own. To help Chen, RT-Mart not only bought his purple yams, but has also taken him on as a produce provider. Chen has also been introduced to three contacts in central Taiwan so he can get in touch with more buyers to sell his crops.
"We decided to sell his produce because many of our customers are sympathetic to his plight. We help the customers help the farmers in need. It is wonderful that we have received so many positive responses for Chen's case," Wang said.
"We have been keen to help the agricultural industry in Taiwan, and we have been working closely with farmer's associations. We often help monitor and adjust the price of agricultural produce to the farmers' advantage," Wang said.
"RT-Mart is happy to help out with single cases, but at the same time, similar projects on a large scale need to planned by the government first so it is more efficient. The government has been offering many different relief and promotion plans, and we have been following these plans eagerly," Wang said.
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