Taiwan: County government purchases bananas amid price slump

The Pingtung County government has begun to buy bananas from local farmers at eight locations in the southern area to help prop up the fruit's slumping price, in line with an initiative launched by Taiwan's top agricultural authority.
The Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture (COA) announced in late May it would guide food processors to buy bananas for a relatively cheap NT$5 per kilogram to boost flagging demand, and officials in Taiwan's southernmost county said Friday it had begun to comply.
According to the county's Agricultural Department, demand for bananas has been crowded out by the harvests of many other summer fruits like mangos, pineapples and watermelons, causing prices to fall.
"Bananas have been unable to compete with the juicy fruits, " the department said.
The COA has set a goal of purchasing 3,000 tons of healthy green bananas, weighing under 6 kilograms per bundle.
The measure, however, drew the protests of several banana growers in neighboring Kaohsiung County, who complained that the purchasing program only benefits farmers who have contracts with local farmers cooperatives, the Chinese-language United Daily News reported Friday.
"Farmers who don't have ties to the cooperatives can only leave their bananas to rot, " said Chu Hsin-chiang, the former head of the Meinong Township Farmers Association.