By Chris Wang / Staff Reporter, in Yunlin County
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday backed pig farmers’ calls for government compensation, but it remained undecided on whether to support a planned protest over falling pork prices related to the continuing US beef controversy.
“Being a mature and rational party, the DPP does not encourage pig farmers to take to the street and still prefers to solve the issue through negotiations,” DPP acting chairperson Chen Chu (陳菊) said in Douliou (斗六), Yunlin County. “But we will not sit by and watch them suffer if that [staging a protest] is their final decision.”
Chen, speaking at the party’s Central Standing Committee meeting, made the comments after representatives of pig farmers from several southern counties expressed their anger and frustration over falling pork prices, which they said had cost the industry NT$50 billion (US$1.7 billion)
The party’s meeting, which is usually held in Taipei, was moved yesterday to Yunlin so that the party could get a better grasp of the situation facing pig farmers.
The DPP said the price of local pork products has fallen more than 40 percent since a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker said an animal feed additive “more toxic” than ractopamine had been found in local pork, resulting in a panic among consumers.
“The decision by [President] Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration to lift the ban on imports of US beef containing ractopamine had nothing to do with us, but now it has cost us dearly,” said Chang Wen-shan (張文山), a pig farmer in Pingtung County.
Chang said that the average loss for pig farmers was currently about NT$5 million.
Chang said the panic over the safety of local pork had been blown out of proportion because only one in every thousand local pig farmers was found to be using the illegal additive.
Several lawmakers proposed staging a protest by pig farmers in Taipei on May 20 to coincide with Ma’s inauguration ceremony for his second term.
Pig farmers nationwide staged a protest on March 8 in Taipei, urging the Ma administration to keep in place the ban on US imports, saying that they were suspicious of Ma’s pledge that ractopamine would only be allowed in imported US beef, but not US pork.
According to Chen Yi-wen (陳怡文), a pig farmer in Yunlin, pork production costs NT$65 per kilogram, but the current market price for pork is NT$49 a kilo.
The government has done nothing to stabilize the market, Chen Yi-wen said.
The DPP will provide legal assistance to farmers in their efforts to seek government compensation and push the party’s legislative caucus to make the issue high on the legislature’s agenda, Chen Chu said.
“We don’t have an answer [on whether the DPP would support the protest] at this moment,” said Chen, who is Greater Kaohsiung Mayor.
The DPP called for Taiwanese to remain confident about the quality of locally produced pork and the nation’s highly competitive pig farming industry, she said, adding that people should eat more local pork.
Speaking in his personal capacity, former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) voiced strong support for the planned demonstration, saying that a protest coinciding with Ma’s inauguration would send a loud message and attract international attention.
Many people have suffered from Ma’s poor handling of issues other than the importation of US meat, such as the recent avian flu outbreaks and rising commodity price, and the DPP “should speak out for these people” as a party in opposition, Hsieh said.