The Council of Agriculture said yesterday it had adopted price adjustment measures and long-term monitoring mechanisms to help farmers deal with a surplus production of bananas.
Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄) said he received a call last week from President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) the same day a banana farmer expressed his concern over the surplus production to the president.
Chen said Ma told him to set up a reporting system so that any supply and demand imbalance could immediately be relayed to the president.
Photo: CNA
The council said that prices for bananas and other major fruit grown locally were under control as it collects data on agricultural products on a daily basis, as well as weekly analyses of price movements.
The Agriculture and Food Agency said that as mangoes, watermelons, pineapples, lychee and other fruit are in-season from June to September, it was inevitable that banana prices would drop during the period.
The agency said the total area dedicated to banana plantations this year was 3 percent lower than last year at 13,018 hectares, with the full-year harvest estimated to reach 262,043 tonnes.
To stabilize banana farmers’ profits and prevent prices from dropping too much during summer, the council had adopted promotional measures to boost banana sales domestically and overseas.
Domestic promotions — including using bananas as a supplement for the military and in prisons and holding bananas festivals — are expected to take in 530 tonnes, with another 400 tonnes to be used for processed foods, the council said.
It has also set an export target of 2,000 tonnes for China.
In addition, the agency has set up a Taiwan fruit discount order platform on the Internet for people to buy fresh bananas and papayas.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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