The National Policy Foundation on Monday called for the government to hold trade talks with Japan and the US over their bans on Taiwanese pork imports.
Taiwanese pork exports fell from 1,664 tonnes in 2020 to 66 tonnes last year, a 96 percent decline, said the foundation, a think tank affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
While the government lifted a ban on imports of US pork containing traces of ractopamine and an 11-year ban on food products from five Japanese prefectures after the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster, it “does not dare to ask the US and Japan to lift their bans on imports of Taiwanese pork,” the foundation said.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Aug. 28, 2020, announced that Taiwan would begin allowing imports of pork containing traces of ractopamine from the US, which took effect on Jan. 1 last year.
On Feb. 21, Taiwan began to import food products from the five Japanese prefectures.
Citing ROC Swine Association data, the foundation said that pork has since 1986 surpassed rice to have the highest production value of all local agricultural products.
The pork industry peaked in November 1996, with 25,357 hog farms and more than 10.7 million pigs, generating up to NT$88.6 billion (US$3.13 billion at the current exchange rate) in production value, the foundation said, citing a Council of Agriculture (COA) report.
Taiwan was once the second-largest pork exporter, sending 272,000 tonnes abroad in 1997, 269,000 of which were sold to Japan for US$1.54 billion, the report said.
That same year, at least 3.85 million pigs were culled after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, which cost the industry at least NT$170 billion, a COA estimate showed, forcing many pig farmers to leave the market, the foundation said.
As of the end of November last year, only 6,308 pig farms raising 5.472 million pigs were operating, about half of the number before the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, it said.
The foundation criticized the council’s efforts to boost pork exports after it launched a four-year, NT$12.83 billion hog-raising fund last year.
Despite the blow to the pork export market, imports have shown steady annual growth, reaching 62,000 tonnes last year at US$190 million, the foundation said.
The World Organisation for Animal Health on June 16, 2020, declared Taiwan a zone free of foot-and-mouth disease where vaccination is not practiced, which allowed the resumption of pork exports after a 24-year hiatus, the foundation said.
Pork has since been exported to South Africa and Singapore, but not Japan, which used to be Taiwan’s biggest export market, it said.
Taiwanese pork costs more because it is of higher quality, and therefore the industry should aim for higher-end markets such as European countries, Japan and the US, it added.
Taiwan should take advantage of its prevention of swine fever and “negotiate with Japan to import pork from Taiwan and help Taiwan join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership,” the foundation said.
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