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The Council of Agriculture is proposing increasing pork imports by 3,000 tonnes a month by halving the import tariff in a bid to curb rising pork prices.
The council would negotiate with the Ministry of Finance to lower the tariff to 6.25 percent from 12.5 percent, Council of Agriculture Deputy Minister Chen Wen-te said during a question-and-answer session at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee.
Chen said the council would also conduct a nationwide census of hog farms next month and fine-tune the policy based on the results.
The council’s statistics show that the pork price soared to NT$83.6 per kilogram on March 4, while the average price this month was NT$75 per kilogram. The price dropped slightly to NT$81.47 yesterday, Chen said.
“The price increase has been caused because pork suppliers are expecting prices to increase as the result of an outbreak of porcine epidemic diarrhea [PED] from October last year to the beginning of this month, which killed 220,000 piglets,” he said.
Thursday March 13, 2014/ Taipei News/ Taiwan.
http://www.taipeitimes.com
