SHARP DROP IN GARLIC PRICE

At a time when the prices of most commodities are on the rise, garlic prices keep tumbling down, from over 40 NT dollars per catty a year ago to just 14 NT dollars this month due to overproduction. And garlic farmers in Tainan have been hit hard by the price cut, and they are now turning to the government for help.

Under the hot scorching sun are 300 plus bags of garlic at the Tainan countys ChiGoo districts San Goo, an area that is famous for its garlic production.

The recent garlic price has dropped drastically to around NT$14 per catty from last years NT$40 to NT$50 per catty.

Thus the farmers are forced to stock them up.

In the area, 60 hectares of the farmland was used for garlic planting, which is not as large as those in Yunling areas.

Wholesale businessmen bought the garlic from Yungling and joined together to force the Chigoo garlic price down.

Since some farmers dont have any places to store the garlic and need cash to pay for labor cost, on top of fear of the price going lower, they had to sell at NT$14 per catty as they hope the Council of Agriculture can step in and help them out.

The southern Taiwan branch of the Agriculture and Food Agency said that, since rainfall this year is less than last year, there are 10,000 tons more garlic this year in ChiGoo area.

Currently, international garlic price is NT$80 to NT$150 per kilograms, in the future, garlic will be exported to help stabilize the domestic garlic price.

The Agency also pointed out that, garlic prices will go up soon and the farmers should be confident about that.

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