Yunlin County Commissioner Chang Li-shan (張麗善) yesterday called on the Council of Agriculture to ensure purchases of the county’s peanuts, after the crop’s plummeting price became a political issue among local legislative candidates.
To protect farmers’ rights, the central government should increase tariffs on imported peanuts, and ensure that the production and sale of local peanuts are balanced, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member said when visiting farmers in Shueilin Township (水林).
The county government is to ask the council to extend the period of purchasing peanuts at guaranteed prices, she said.
Photo: Lin Kuo-hsien, Taipei Times
In early November last year, the price of peanuts in Yunlin rose to NT$48 (US$1.59) per 600 grams due to a smaller harvest after heavy rain, but it dropped to about NT$35 per 600g after rumors spread online that the council would allow imports of cheaper peanuts this year.
On Nov. 20, the council asked local farmers’ associations to help purchase peanuts at a guaranteed price of NT$40 per 600g, or NT$67 per kilogram, to stabilize prices, saying that the measure would last until Dec. 20.
Many farmers have complained that peanuts harvested at later dates have not yet been purchased, Yunlin County Councilor Huang Wen-hsiang (黃文祥), an independent who used to be Chang’s aide, said.
Nearly 300 tonnes of peanuts grown by 200 farmers across the county have not yet been purchased, Yunlin County Agriculture Department Director-General Wei Sheng-te (魏勝德) said.
Less than 10 percent of the county’s peanuts have not yet been harvested, Agriculture and Food Agency Deputy Director-General Su Mao-shiang (蘇茂祥) said, adding that the agency expects to finish buying peanuts in two weeks.
As of Tuesday, the agency has purchased more than 4,900 tonnes of peanuts at the guaranteed price, the agency said in a press release yesterday.
The agency has paid NT$290 million in loans to peanut farmers and would request that farmers’ groups pay loans to farmers who file applications at later dates, it said.
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