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222 Taiwan Development Perspectives 2009
Taiwan is self-sufficient in rice. It has to import other
grains. Its cereal yield totaled 1.22 million tons in 2007.
Grain imports in the same year totaled 6.62 million tons.
(See Table 3 for Taiwan’s grain imports.)
Table 3
Major Items of Grain Import
Year Corn Wheat Barley Sorghum Soybean
2000 4,941,785 1,157,932 139,869 38,054 2,301,750
2001 5,198,367 1,020,852 202,688 36,317 2,442,328
2002 5,055,173 1,153,435 182,683 45,528 2,534,075
2003 5,075,040 1,224,328 32,607 69,521 2,453,551
2004 4,860,146 1,091,295 140,859 51,870 2,025,481
2005 4,980,114 1,282,265 140,711 75,555 2,446,037
2006 5,077,878 985,993 124,478 57,929 2,386,000
2007 4,380,446 1,177,225 63,797 67,857 2,386,000
Source: Basic Agricultural Statistics 2007, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan.
Consumption of bread has risen in Taiwan. High
crude oil prices made wheat imports more costly. The
resultant higher bread prices forced people to switch to
cheaper foods. A large number of bakeries had to close
down in 2008.
Prices of chemical fertilizers went up, too. Farmers
protested, forcing the government-owned Taiwan
Fertilizer Corporation to reduce its sales prices. Prices
of other products necessary for farming also rose considerably.
The market competitiveness of local farm
products was greatly weakened. They could hardly
compete against imported agricultural products.
The government was forced to consider the rehabilitation
of those 230,000 hectares of retired farmland
to produce corns or soybeans as a way to partially substitute
imports. The private sector wants to introduce
fuel plants for farming. But for lack of enough of farmland,
fuel plants cannot commercially farmed in Taiwan.
IV. Impact on the Livestock Industry
Per capita consumption of rice and sweet potatoes
has been going down since 1970, though consumption
of meat, vegetables, fruits and milk has increased. Annual
per capita meat consumption increased from 26.43
kilograms in 1971 to 78.95 kilograms in 2006. Such
strong demand boosted the development of the
livestock industry. Altogether 9,418,921 hogs and
376,540,000 broilers and roasters were slaughtered to
meet the demand in 2007.
Taiwan imported 4,380,446 tons of corn, 1,117,225
tons of wheat, 2,386,000 tons of soybeans, 63,797 tons
of barley and 67,587 tons of sorghum in 2007. They
were imported mainly from the United States and Brazil.
High ocean freight cost caused by high crude oil
prices increased the cost of importing the cereals for
animal feeds. The cost and freight prices of corns were
tripled from NT$4.69 per kilogram in January 2002 to
NT$11.33 in June 2008. The soybean meal C&F prices
were doubled from NT$7.46 per kilogram in January
2002 to NT$14.95 in June 2008. The cost of production
of pork and chicken increased as a result. Hog and
poultry farming lost competitiveness. (See Table 4 for
corn and soybean meal prices.)