The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) struck a deal at 2am yesterday for China to purchase 2,000 tonnes of Taiwanese bananas, which would help resolve the current market glut, KMT lawmakers said yesterday.
"[China] will buy 2,000 tonnes of bananas for more than NT$10 per kilogram, with the first batch of 300 tonnes to be sent to Shanghai and Tianjin via Hong Kong on Tuesday," Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權), director of the KMT's policy coordination department, said at a press conference yesterday.
The Council of Agriculture (COA) has devised a plan to help ease the banana glut by paying farmers NT$3 per kilogram to dispose of their secondary bananas.
COA'S PLAN
The council's three-month plan calls for 1,000 tonnes of bananas a month to be disposed of.
But KMT member Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄), who is handling the deal with China, said he doubted the council's project would really benefit farmers.
"The government promised farmers in the 2004 presidential election that it would make unlimited purchases of bananas if the fruit's market price was 95 percent less than production costs, but now the council's project would place limits on both the buying price and amount," Chen said.
He said that the deal with China was signed in Xiamen, where a cross-strait forum on agriculture sponsored by the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was held last week.
The COA said there has been a 20 percent increase in banana production this year as farmers sought a repeat of last year's good prices.
Agriculture and Food Agency Director-General Tsai Ching-chiang (蔡精強) said the key to resolving the glut was to explore other export outlets, including Japan and Southeast Asian countries, since the domestic demand for bananas remains stable.
LEE CHIMES IN
Meanwhile, former president Lee Teng-hui (
Lee said that he was not against the CCP-KMT deal, but that Beijing must specifically tell Taipei how much they wanted to buy and how much they would pay.
"They could buy the bananas this year, but they could also turn a blind eye to our problem next year," Lee said.
Commenting on Cabinet officials' recent campaign to promote bananas, including Premier Su Tseng-chang's (
Lee, who has a doctorate in agricultural economics, said he thought there was something wrong with the fruit marketing system and that the problem was compounded by overproduction.
Additional reporting by Ko Shu-ling
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
THE GOOD WORD: More than 100 colleges on both sides of the Pacific will work together to bring students to Taiwan so they can learn Mandarin where it is spoken A total of 102 universities from Taiwan and the US are collaborating in a push to promote Taiwan as the first-choice place to learn Mandarin, with seven Mandarin learning centers stood up in the US to train and support teachers, the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET) said. At the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages held over the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, a Taiwan Pavilion was jointly run by 17 representative teams from the FICHET, the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu, the
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
MORE RETALIATION: China would adopt a long-term pressure strategy to prevent other countries or future prime ministers following in Sanae Takaichi’s steps, an academic said Taiwan should maintain communications with Japan, as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is to lead a revision of security documents, Taiwanese academics said yesterday. Tensions have risen between Japan and China over remarks by Takaichi earlier this month that the use of force against Taiwan would constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan. Prospect Foundation president Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) yesterday said Takaichi’s stance regarding Taiwan is the same as past Japanese prime ministers, but her position is clearer than that of her predecessors Fumio Kishida and Shigeru Ishiba. Although Japan views a “Taiwan contingency” as a “survival-threatening situation,” which would allow its military to
RSS